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EXPLORING

ENGLISH
CHARACTER

By the same Author

POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY

The Revolutionary Ideas of the Marquis de Sade (1934)
The Life and Ideas of the Marquis de Sade (2nd edition 1953)

TRAVEL

Africa Dances (1935)
Bali and Angkor (1936)
Hot Strip Tease (1938)

POLITICAL SATIRE
Nobody Talks Polifics (1936)

SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Himalayan Village — a study of the Lepchas of Sikkim (1938)
The Americans— a study in national character (1948)

in collaboration with Dr. John Rickman
The People of Great Russia— a psychological study (1949)

EXPLORING

ENGLISH
CHARACTER

by
Geoffrey Gorer

CRITERION BOOKS NEW YORK

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

To THE MEMORY OF
MY PARENTS

EDGAR EZEKIEL GORER

April 2nd, 1872-May 7th, 1915

RfiE ALICE GORER

June 13th, 1873-June 30th, 1954

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I WISH to thank Dr Henry Durant of the British Institute of Public
Opinion for permission to republish some figures from the Gallup
Poll which appeared in the News Chronicle.

I wish to thank Mr W. D. McClelland of the Research Depart-
ment of Odhams Press Ltd. for permission to publish some
figures from two surveys conducted by the Department he directs.

I wish to thank Chief Inspector J. L. Thomas of the City of
Bradford Police for permission to quote from two articles by him.

Some of the material which follows has appeared (in slightly
different form) in the People, Encounter, The Observer and The Journal
of Social Issues (U.S.A.).

CONTENTS

I How IT BEGAN 1

II ASSUMPTIONS 12

III PEOPLE AND HOMES 34

IV FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS 51

V GOING OUT 65

VI GROWING UP 77

VII LOVE 83

VIII IDEAS ABOUT SEX 94

IX MARRIAGE I: Hopes and Fears 125

X MARRIAGE II: Experience 137

XI CHILDREN I: Bending the Twig 162

XII CHILDREN II: Punishments and Rewards 178

XIII LAW AND ORDER 213

XIV RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS 237

XV To SEE OURSELVES 278

APPENDIX I: Modification of National Character:

The Psychological Role of the Police in England 305

APPENDIX II: On the Employment of Questionnaires for

the Study of National Character 313

THE QUESTIONNAIRE 320

LIST OF TABLES) . , . 1 . f ^ _ . _ 329

TABLES 1-108 ) mcluded m the Compkte edltlon ^ 334

vii

CHAPTER ONE

HOW IT BEGAN

I HAVE LONG felt it rather ridiculous that there was no study of the
English character, comparable with the studies that my colleagues
and I had made of the American, the Great Russian and the French
characters.1 It represented a major gap; and insofar as these studies
were meant to be of use to politicians and political scientists — and
this was certainly one of the major motives for making them— one
of the sides of the square, one of the essential equations, was missing.

Though I was deeply conscious of this gap, I did not want to rill
it myself. The difficulties of seeing one's own culture, of getting an
adequate perspective on one's own inarticulate assumptions are very
great, and psychologically disturbing. There are numerous advantages
in being a foreigner to the society one is studying; one is unplaced
socially, for one's foreignness masks the lesser differences of class
or region; one's accent, or one's more or less halting employment of
a strange language, mark one as a stranger, not as a rival, a superior or
inferior to^the people one is talking to ; within the limits of one's enter-
prise and interest, the whole society, any portion of the society, can
be open to one. And a foreigner is transient ; one can talk to him freely
and frankly for a few hours, as people talk to chance acquaintances
on boats and trains, without the fears, or the hopes, that the chance
meeting will develop into a longer acquaintance; many people will
be far more open to strangers than they would ever be to neighbours.

All these advantages are lost when one is working in one's own
society. As soon as I start speaking I am placed as a graduate of one
of the major universities (Cambridge, as a matter of fact); and
English people respond to this accent in a variety of fairly stereotyped
ways. I am immediately recognized as belonging to the top percentile
as far as education goes; and nearly all strange English people will
therefore respond to me as a member of a class, as well as an indi-
vidual. My manners, my gestures, my attitudes towards money are
all class-typed; I can never be accepted in an English working class
home, as I can in an American, or a French one. In both the latter I
am an oddity, judged by my immediate behaviour at the time; in
the former a *toff'? having to bear the attitudes developed over a
lifetime to other 'toffs', to 'toffs' and 'snoopers' as a class, and quite
possibly to political parties and stereotypes. I do not mean by this
that acquaintance, and even deep friendship, is not possible between

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

members of different social classes in England; it is indeed,-and I have
been very fortunate in some of the friendships I have made. But it is
an intensive, not an extensive relationship; it takes time to develop,
probably longer than friendships within the same class. In the United
States a casual encounter, a casual invitation has opened not only
the house, but the hearts of people I have never seen before, and will
probably never see again; and I know Americans who have the same
happy experiences in England. But an invitation from one English
person to another (or indeed from one American to another) is not
given so lightly and easily, for it is a first step, which may well in-
volve the future; the foreigner, in town for a couple of days, presents
no such problems.

I could not learn the English, as I had learned the Americans,
through a wide and varied personal experience, as a counterpoint to
the numerous studies which specialists had made of different aspects
of American life. Nor indeed did parallel studies exist; the self-
analysis, self-criticism and self-discovery which so many Americans
seem to find congenial and which is so amply supported by the
sociology departments of many great Universities and the benefac-
tions of the large charitable foundations for the pursuit of knowledge
have no analogues in England. Since Mayhew there has been a
certain amount of what may perhaps be called, without intending
offence, 'slumming sociology', descriptions of how the 'other half
lives and works, books in which the word 'poverty' recurs, even in
the titles, with monotonous regularity; but these are studies of ways
and means, not of ideals or values or motives ; and they emphasize
the differences, not the similarities, between the people studied and
the people likely to read the studies. There were hints a-plenty in the
popular novels, the humour of music hall and radio, in biographies
and autobiographies; but there was nothing approaching the mass of
systematic work which I was able to take as my background for The
Americans.

Geographically, I know very little of England. When at home, I
am naturally a sedentary type, preferring a country life; with
Voltairean fervour, I cultivate my garden, and, latterly, my farm.
As a boy I was taken for holidays to a wide variety of seaside and
country places ; but in recent years I have only been outside my home,
or London, for short visits to friends or to various bodies who have
been kind enough to invite me to address them; and few of these
have been north of Oxford. I have no variety of personal experience,
even of personal vision, to supplement, or replace, the non-existent
sociological studies.

HOW IT BEGAN

After the publication of The Americans English editors approached
me from time to time with the suggestion that I write 'something
like* that book on the English; but when I explained my ignorance,
and the absence of other sources of information, so that quite a
considerable amount of research would be needed before I would
feel capable of writing anything on the subject, the proposal was
quickly dropped. This continued intermittently for two years, and
seemed as though it would continue indefinitely, though probably
at longer and longer intervals; but in the autumn of 1950 the sugges-
tion was made once more by the editor of the People; instead of
being frightened by my saying that research would be necessary,
he blithely accepted the situation and said that the research depart-
ment of Odhams Press would undertake the necessary work. I fear
he did not realize quite how much that work would be.

The People is a popular Sunday paper with the second largest
circulation in Great Britain, passed only by the News of the World.
As the tables published by the Hulton Readership Survey2 show, it
is widely read by every section of the community, though less
proportionately by the first two socio-economic classes into which
they divide the society (The Well-to-do' and The Middle Class')
the top 11 per cent of the population, than by the remainder of the
community. According to this same survey, this paper is read by
twelve million people, roughly three readers for each copy. Readers
are scattered all over the country and are of all ages and both sexes;
but, proportionately there is a slight falling off of readership in the
South-East and North- West, and in old people aged over 65; male
readers predominate. As will be seen, the sample follows the reader-
ship very closely, particularly in the lack of adequate representation
of the top 10 per cent of the population, and of old people.3

The editors of the People had very clear ideas of the subjects
which would interest their enormous audience, and the way in which
it should be presented. Their editorial experience had determined
that articles written in the second person were much more acceptable
than articles written in the third person; and the original scheme
outlined to me called for a series of six articles under the titles:

You and Your Sweetheart

You and Your Husband (or Wife)

You and Your Children

You and Your Boss

You and The Law

You and Religion

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

I did not feel that questionnaires were a suitable method for
investigating the relationship between employer and employee, and
I could discover no other adequate sources on this subject; so I
suggested that 'You and Your Boss' be replaced by 'You and Your
Neighbour'. This was agreed to.

" The outlined scheme further suggested that I should write a
preliminary article asking for volunteers from the readers of the
People', that to them should be sent a questionnaire of my devising;
and the coding of this questionnaire and the preparation of the
resulting statistical tables should be undertaken by the Research
Section of Odhams Press Ltd., headed by Mr McClelland with his
assistant Dr Adler. They were fully equipped to carry out all social
survey and market research work.

I hesitated some time before accepting this commission. Although
I had, on many occasions, made use of statistical information derived
from questionnaires, I had never engaged in such work myself;
my preferred technique of research, and the one in which I felt
most confident, was the interview, especially the multiple interview.
I was far from certain whether questionnaires could provide the type of
material, statements of conduct and ideals, which I needed for making
hypotheses about the psychological motives shared by the members
of a society. And, I must confess, I felt certain qualms about working
for a paper which, however great its other merits, did not auto-
matically command the respect of my colleagues nor, I suspected,
of most of the people who read my books.

At the same time the commission was a challenge and an oppor-
tunity. It was a challenge to ingenuity to frame questions so that
the answers would yield the type of information I needed; and it
could also go some way to providing a convincing demonstration of
the statistical validity of the concept of national character, which
critics, not only unfriendly ones, had consistently questioned; and if
convincing material could be elicited by questionnaires, it would
enable far more people to do research in national character; the
methods my colleagues and I had pursued hitherto relied too
strongly on individual skills of interviewing and analysis, and the
following of faint clues, to be teachable except by the equivalent
of a prolonged apprenticeship.

It was, however, above all an opportunity, an opportunity to get
a mass of data, which might otherwise never be forthcoming; for
even if some learned institution were to consider undertaking parallel
research, it would not (in England) have the clerical staff nor the
machines to analyse such a volume of responses. For reasons that I

HOW IT BEGAN

have already stated, I did not think I could successfully interview
representatives of the mass of the English population; here I could
get material from members of all classes which, though it would
needs be limited, would not be distorted by the class-feelings of
face-to-face interviews; and it would produce a wider geographical
and social scatter than I could hope to achieve in the rest of my life,
even if I abandoned all other pursuits.4 This consideration finally
outweighed my hesitations about working with a hitherto untried
technique, under conditions and auspices which were not academi-
cally ideal.

A further drawback whose disadvantages I did not fully realize
at the time was that the whole research had to be planned from the
start, so that the total investment in time and money could be
calculated; that meant that, instead of waiting for the preliminary
results, and then deciding what further calculations and cross-
correlations would be profitable, I had to make guesses on the basis
of the questions, rather than the answers. This proved to be more of
a loss for Odhams Press than for the work; there were a few cross.-
correlations which I think might have been significant which were
not made; but quite a considerable number were made which were
of very little interest. Thus, for example, I thought that it would be
interesting to discover if the treatment of children were different in
large and small families, and arranged for most of the questions
about children to be cross-correlated with the number of children.
As it turned out, there were so few parents with more than three
children in the coded sample that the figures were hardly significant;
but I didn't receive the basic table until most of the calculations had
already been made.5

I asked for, and was generously granted, a couple of scientific
safeguards to test the validity of the research; first a pre-testing of
the questions on a small sample (a pilot survey, it is called technically),
to make sure that the questions were understandable to all classes
of respondents; this is standard procedure in questionnaires. It
produced some illuminating and some curious results; I find it odd
that few of the English working class recognize the word 'astrology'
though, to a man and woman, they know the word 'horoscope'.

The second safeguard was more important technically, and inci-
dentally much more expensive. Neither I, nor anybody else, had the
remotest idea how many of the readers of the People would answer
my request for collaboration, who they would be, nor how representa-
tive of the English people as a whole. To guard against the probability
of major distortions, and to have a check on the representativeness

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

of what we hoped would be the major group, the editors agreed
that a field survey, based on a representative sample of the type
which the Gallup polls have made familiar, should be made at
the same time as the printed forms were sent out and with the
same questions.6 This concession was a remarkably generous one on
the part of the editors, for it made practically no difference to the
'journalistic' aspects of the work, in which they were naturally the
more interested; but it gave me far more confidence in the validity
of the results, and provided a scientific check of major importance.

Once these arrangements had been agreed to, I went home and
refreshed my memory of the various rules and recommendations
for the formation of questionnaires which experts had published
from time to time; and then I proceeded in a considerable number of
cases to do just the opposite. It was recommended that written
questionnaires be kept short and confined to one subject, or group of
subjects; I made mine extremely long — the fullest questionnaires
covered eight folio sheets and probably took about three hours to
fill — and covered a great range of subjects. It was stated as an axiom
that you would not get information on intimate or deeply felt
subjects by this means; I asked for views on pre-marital sexuality
and life after death, law-breaking and prayer, psychic experiences
and child-training. Questions, it was said, should be neutral; but I
wanted expressions of emotion, so I included such questions as
'What do you most disapprove of about your present neighbours ?'
'If a husband finds his wife having an affair with another man, what
should he do?' I thought that, in the great majority of cases, if
people were going to bother to answer the questionnaire at all,
they would do so honestly and fully; they were protected by anony-
mity;7 and if I could not get information of the level indicated, the
survey would be of little use to me.

Most of the questions were arranged in batches of 4 or 5 dealing
with the same subject to avoid as far as possible fatigue or boredom;
some subjects were recurred to after an interval. A few questions
were put in because I thought people would enjoy answering them,
and not because I expected to get much valuable information from
them; for example, 'What do you consider your three best qualities?'
'What do you consider your three worst faults?' 'Do you think it is
natural for young people to be shy?' and so on. The replies to some
of these questions turned out to be surprisingly revealing, for the
respondents were many of them extremely frank, and told things to
their own discredit which I never expected to learn from such a
source. I did not have a murderer among my respondents, nor did

HOW IT BEGAN

anyone accuse him or herself of treason, simony or barratry; but
I do not think there is another crime or misdemeanour on the
calendar to which at least one respondent did not admit.

The project of avoiding fatigue by varying the topics of the ques-
tions was modified in two particulars, I wanted to get the views on
marriage from those who had actual experience in marriage, and
the views on child-rearing only from parents who could speak from
experience; and consequently the questionnaires had to be arranged
so that the questions on these subjects did not go to the inappropriate
people. All respondents were asked to answer the first 45 main
questions; 6 further questions dealing with marriage went only to
those who were, or had been, married; 14 further questions dealt
with child training and education and were sent to parents only.
The questionnaires consequently came in three lengths. Further-
more, certain questions were varied in their wording according to
the sex of the respondent. Thus, for example, the question already
quoted If a husband finds his wife having an affair with another man,
what should he do?' was only sent to married men. Married women
were asked 'If a wife finds her husband having an affair with another
woman, what should she do?' Consequently there were in all six
forms of questionnaire, depending on the sex of the respondent,
and whether he or she were single, married and childless, or married
with children.

When these preparations had been made, I wrote the introductory
article asking for the volunteers on whose goodwill and collaboration
the success of the research so completely depended. The article was
rewritten a number of times before what I wanted to say was success-
fully welded into the form the editors of the People considered
desirable. The nub of the article read :

Where can I find enough English people who will be willing to tell me
their true ideas and experiences so that I can deduce the elements which
make up the English character? This is where you can help me.

Nowadays explorers and scientists do not work alone; they work in a
team. I need a team to help me.

From among my readers I want to form a study group to supply me
with answers to questions which will give me the information I need on
the way English people feel and behave.

I should not need a very large group to get valuable results. If I could
have 200 young men and 200 young women under 21, 200 men and 200
women between 21 and 30, 200 men and 200 women between 31 and 45,
and 200 men and 200 women over 46 that would be sufficient.

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

All the members of my study group must be English, born in England
of English parents, and should have spent all or the greatest part of
their school years in England.

One thing is very important. Each member of the study group must
answer all the questions by himself or herself without asking for any help.

Because I want the answers to be as true as possible, I am not asking
anyone to sign the questionnaire or put their address on it.

With the article was a coupon for volunteers, in which besides
their name and address, they were asked to indicate their sex, age,
whether they were married or no, and whether they had children, so
that they should receive the appropriate form. The article appeared
on December 31st 1950.

The figure of 1,600 respondents of both sexes and assorted ages,
which I asked for in the article, was a purely fantasy figure, though I
certainly could have done very little with fewer. It appeared to me
possible that, by setting a rather small limit to the number asked for,
I might attract some people by the appearance of exclusivity; and I
was far from certain of getting even that small number.

In the first few days the applications came in a trickle; but this was
soon transformed into a flood. We decided that no more question-
naires would be sent out after January 17th; by that date 14,605 had
been despatched. There were more applications than this; some
hundreds came from Welsh, Scots, Irish and nationals of other
countries who were not suitable for this investigation. Even after the
closing date applications continued to come in.

There were certainly enough volunteers. The stereotype of the
withdrawn Englishman, resenting other people's prying into his
business, received a severe jolt; I had got something approaching the
rapport which, in foreign countries, I hope to achieve through
interviews.

But what would be the relation between volunteers who sent for
the questionnaire, and people who would take the time and trouble
to complete them? The text-books indicated that a response of 25 to
30 per cent on a written questionnaire should be considered satis-
factory; my questionnaire was a particularly long and intimate one
(respondents occasionally noted the time it had taken them to fill it
in; for single people it averaged about an hour and a half, for parents
three hours or more); 25 per cent seemed all I could possibly hope
for. This would give me about three thousand questionnaires; if the
scatter was good, this would be adequate.

This forecast was wildly inaccurate. By January 31st, which we

HOW IT BEGAN

had arbitrarily decided would be the closing date, 10,524 completed
forms had been returned. A further 500 came in after this closing
date, so that, in all, there was a return of 75 per cent of the question-
naires sent out, a response as far as I know unparalleled in the history
of questionnaire investigations.

This mass of material was actually something of an embarrass-
ment^ The coding of more than 10,000 questionnaires would be
excessively expensive and time-consuming; and there was no reason
to suppose that such a very large number was necessary to produce
significant results. I decided that I would read each one for significant
or apt information or illustrations ; but consultation with statisticians
suggested that 5,000 would be an adequate number to code, if they
were selected at random.

The most completely satisfactory operation would probably have
been to choose these 5,000 out of the whole mass without any
principle other than randomness; but as they had come in, they had
been sorted into six groups (dependent on sex and marital status)
according to the six types of questionnaires returned. Much the
smallest of these groups, both absolutely, and in proportion to the
population as a whole, were those of married men (760) and married
women (533) without children. It was therefore decided, (without,
incidentally, consulting me) that all these groups should be coded,
and that the remainder of the questionnaires, from the unmarried
and from the parents, should be selected in random fashion in
proportion to the total numbers of the groups in the English popula-
tion, as these had been calculated by the registrar-general. This gave
us 27 per cent unmarried, 26 per cent married and childless, and
47 per cent parents of living children, a parallel to the English
population over 16, as far as marital status was concerned.8

Although the sample was correct maritally, this method of selection
distorted it rather badly as far as age was concerned. A very con-
siderable number of our childless married respondents were only
recently married, and consequently the younger people, between the
ages of 18 and 34, are heavily over-represented in these groups,
and, consequently, in the sample as a whole; and people over 45,
and particularly those over 65, are much under-represented. It is
this skewing of the ages which make the comparisons between the
sample and the field survey particularly tricky; in the field survey,
as in the population as a whole, 31 per cent of the population over
16 is between the ages of 45 and 64, and a further 11 per cent over
65; in our sample only 21 per cent are between 45 and 64, and a
mere 3 per cent over 65. The sample is also skewed for sex; we have

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

56 men for 44 women; whereas the true figures for the population
are 47 per cent men and 53 per cent women. It will be remembered
that the readership survey of the People showed that it was read
proportionately more by men than women, and by the young and
middle-aged rather than by the elderly. To that extent our sample
of 5,000 mirrored the readership of 12,000,000 very closely.

It was gratifying to discover that geographically, according to
region and town size, and also economically, our sample approxi-
mated very closely to the model of the country as a whole with
variations in most cases of only 1 or 2 per cent;9 as far as the gross
criteria were concerned we had, on these levels, a truly representative
sample.

The first six months of 1951 were devoted to arduous work on
the part of the research staff of Odhams Press in coding this mass of
information; and on my part in reading and making notes on over
10,000 questionnaires, and analysing the tables as they were delivered.
In the hottest days of that summer I could not forget that the first
fortnight in January had been wet and cold and that many people
were ill with flu; nor that the papers and radio were much taken up
with the hunt for the missing Coronation Stone. The articles were
written in August and September 1951.

NOTES TO CHAPTER ONE

1. For a full bibliography of current work on National Character see Mead and
M&raux: The Study of Culture at a Distance, pp. 455-74 (University of Chicago Press
and Cambridge University Press, 1953).

2. Patterns of British Life (Hulton Research, London, 1950).

3. The actual percentages for readership given are:

Classes: All classes, 32-8; A and B, 18-9; C, 29-2; D and E, 35-9.
Sex: Men, 35-4; women, 30-5.

Regions: South-East, 31-6; South-West and Wales, 36-6; Midlands, 35-6; North-
West, 32-1; North-East and North, 38-5.
Ages: 16-24, 33-7; 25-44, 33-7; 45-64, 33-9; 65 and over, 26-4.

4. If one allows three hours for an interview, which considering the range of subjects
covered is not excessive, the 11,024 informants would have taken something like 16
years to interview, working a 40-hour week, without taking into account the recording
and subsequent coding.

5. A second disadvantage, and this was a more serious one, was that the Research
Section of Odhams Press, Ltd. were accustomed to doing all their work themselves,
without consultations with any outside person between the deciding on the questions
to be asked and the delivery of the answers. This habit persisted in the work they
were doing on my behalf; and on a few tables they established categories which failed
to make the distinctions which I thought necessary. Some useful information is per-
manently lost, unless all the questionnaires are rescored, and new cards punched ; but
it is, comparatively, so little, that it would probably not be worth anybody's expendi-
ture of time and money.

HOW IT BEGAN

6. Although the questions asked were identical, it was not possible to ask all the
questions in the survey in a face-to-face interview, and some of them were not suitable
for fairly naive interviewers The field survey contained somewhat more than a third
of the original questions and sub-questions, resulting in 55 tables, as contrasted with
134 tables from the main survey. Every portion of the questionnaire was represented
in part,t except those which had been covered in recent surveys by the same, or parallel,
institutions. For a comparison of the results of interviews and of anonymous ques-
tionnaires see Appendix Two.

7. On the top of the form 'IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO SIGN THIS FORM* was
printed in capital letters; nevertheless a considerable number did so.

8. Absolute figures are: single women, 607 (12 per cent); single men, 755 (15 per
cent); married women without children, 533 (11 per cent); married men without
children, 760 (15 per cent); married women with children, 1,044 (21 per cent); married
men with children, 1,248 (26 per cent).

9. The following tables show the relationship in percentages between my respon-
dents, who filled m the questionnaire, and the field survey based on figures derived
from the census, the registrar-general, etc.

REGIONS

Questionnaire Field survey

London and South-East 40 41

South-West 9 6

Midlands 17 15

North- West 15 18

North-East and North 18 17

TOWN SIZE

Over 1,000,000 inhabitants 22 22

1,000,000-100,000 27 24

100,000-10,000 29 29

Under 10,000 21 24

FAMILY INCOME

Under £5 a week 10 11

£5-£8 a week 42 36

£8-£12 a week 29 24

£12-£15aweek 10 9

Over £15 a week 7 10

No answer 2 10

CHAPTER TWO

ASSUMPTIONS

The full questionnaire, as sent out,
will be found on pages 320 to 328

A QUESTIONNAIRE is not entirely like the proverbial Spanish inn, for
one does get some surprises, information of a kind which was not
foreseen; but by and large, the answers from a questionnaire are,
quite inevitably, determined by the questions ; and the questions in
turn are determined by what the researcher assumes to be relevant,
whether he has made these assumptions articulate or no. In the case
of market research, on the one hand, or censuses on the other, these
assumptions are usually quite clear; but in other types of polling or
research the implications are not always so obvious. The well-
publicized public opinion polls, for example, have the underlying
assumption that all opinions — not merely political preferences
where the evidence is fairly good — are to a great extent determined
by a relatively few physiological and social variables — age, sex,
income, place of residence, type of work or social class, and so on.

With an inquiry such as mine, which was attempting to discover
factors or motives which underlay a variety of opinions and actions,
the assumptions governing the choice of questions become very
important; for many of the questions were designed to elicit attitudes
as well as ideas or behaviour. Although I knew I didn't know enough
to make any confident statements about English characteristics,
nevertheless I had certain hunches or expectations of what I would
be likely to find out, and what would be significant; without some
such framework the answers to a questionnaire would merely be a
barrage of irrelevant facts.

I did not (as I ought to have done) write down my assumptions
at the same time that I drew up the questionnaire; only in that way
could I have safely guarded against being wise after the event, of
revising my assumptions in the light of later knowledge. I do have,
however, some check on what my thoughts then were in the many
letters I wrote to various people connected with the project before
any of the results were available; and some twelve months earlier I
had written a short article in the last number of Horizon 'outlining
a few of the problems which I think a dynamic analysis of the
English character ought to be able to answer/1

ASSUMPTIONS

To my mind, then— and I may add, still— the central problem for
the understanding of the English character is the problem of aggres-
sion, to use the technical term, of pugnacity, quarrelsomeness, envy,
cruelty, nagging, bad temper, irritableness, to name some of the
behaviour in which psychologists see the manifestation of aggression.
This may seem superficially a contradiction in terms, for in public
life today the English are certainly among the most peaceful, gentle,
courteous and orderly populations that the civilized world has ever
seen. But, from the psychological point of view, this is still the same
problem; the control of aggression, when it has gone to such re-
markable lengths that you hardly ever see a fight in a bar (a not
uncommon spectacle in most of the rest of Europe or in the U.S.A.),
when football crowds are as orderly as church meetings, when all
the frustrations and annoyances symbolized by queuing are met
with orderliness and good humour modified, at most, by a few
grumbles and high words, then this orderliness and gentleness, this
absence of overt aggression, calls for an explanation if the dynamics
of English character are to be effectively described.

This English gentleness would seem to be a comparatively new
phenomenon. I am not a qualified historian, but the evidence from
novelists and from contemporary travellers visiting England, seems
to me to show beyond question that the English people, perhaps
especially the Londoners, of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
were remarkably pugnacious and violent, callous about the sufferings
of others, which indeed they often found a source of hilarious
amusement, or of pleasurable excitement, and thoroughly enjoying a
good fight. Kastril, the 'angry boy' in The Alchemist, would appear
to have been a figure of fun because he was so naive and exaggerated,
because he wanted to learn how to quarrel instead of being 'naturally'
quarrelsome. A proper man was mettlesome, and he showed his
mettle by the readiness with which he responded to, or provoked, a
fight. Men walked about armed, if not with swords, then with
cudgels or life-preservers; one could not, it would appear, walk on
foot without being prepared to fight.

No society in the world which I know of had such persistently
cruel and violent amusements and diversions as the people of
Elizabethan England; the bull-baiting, the bear-baiting, the cock-
fighting, the public executions and floggings, the teasing of the insane
in Bedlam, as well as the endless duels and battles, the scenes of
cruelty, torture and madness which flocked so thick on one another
on the English stage. The Grand Guignol has produced nothing
more gratuitously savage than some of the scenes in gentle

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Shakespeare, from Titus Andronicus to the blinding of Gloucester in
full view of the audience ('Out, vile jelly!') in King Lear. Compared
with the works of most of his contemporary dramatists, the plays of
Shakespeare are 'gentle' in our meaning of the word, as well as in
the Elizabethan sense. Of the theatre I know of, only the Burmese
drama of the second half of the nineteenth century approaches the
Elizabethan in its search for horror.2

All novels can be read as documents, as well as works of art or
entertainment, if they are describing the society in which the author
lives. However conventional the characters, however stagy or con-
trived the plot, the background, the trivial incidents which occupy
the paragraphs between scenes or those which set the scenes give a
great deal of information about the way people ordered their day-
to-day lives, about what the author and his readers think 'normal'.
Read in this way, the great novels of the eighteenth century like
Tom Jones and Roderick Random show an enormous amount of
incidental aggression — cudgel fights, fist fights and so on — which
don't develop the plot or illustrate character so much as describe
agreeable everyday events, perhaps somewhat similar to the role of
meals in the Russian novelists of the nineteenth century. Public life
at that period was very violent and dangerous; there were the cut-
purses and the gangs of highwaymen led by Jonathan Wild and his
kin. When such criminals were caught, their punishment made a
public holiday. But it was not merely against criminals that such
violence was shown; read the letters of Voltaire, read the memoirs of
Casanova. Almost as soon as Casanova arrived in London, he was
advised always to carry two purses, one with a few guineas in to
hand over to highwaymen, and a fuller one secreted about his person.
Among other incidents, he tells of a visit to Drury Lane Theatre when :

for some reason or other which I forget the play which had been
advertised could not be given. The public started protesting. The great
actor Garrick, who was buried twenty years later in Westminster Abbey,
tried to calm the audience but in vain; he was obliged to withdraw.
Some angry people shouted Sauve quipeut, and then the king and queen
and the rest hurriedly left the theatre; an hour later the whole theatre
was wrecked except for the walls which withstood the anger of the
people who did all this destruction for the sole pleasure of exercising
their power. ... A fortnight later, when the theatre had been repaired,
Garrick came before the curtain to beg the public's indulgence. A voice
from the pit cried 'On your knees*, and this cry was taken up by a thou-
sand voices; and Garrick . . . was forced to kneel and ask the public's
pardon in this humiliating position. Then there was loud applause and
all was over. This is what the English people are like, especially the

ASSUMPTIONS

Londoners; they revile the king, the queen, the princes when they
appear in public; consequently they seldom do so except on ceremonial
occasions, when there are hundreds of constables to keep order.3

The opening of the nineteenth century saw little change in these
violent pastimes and occupations. In 1800 six women were publicly
flogged for hedge-pulling till the blood ran down their backs; and
the public flogging of women was only made illegal in 1817, one
year after the pillory was abolished. In the first decades of the century :

Mondays and Fridays were the great days for bullock-hunting, an
inhuman and brutal sport that throve in the neighbourhoods of Hackney
and Bethnal Green [in London] with the sanction, if not with the con-
nivance, of the peace officers of those parishes. The procedure of the
bullock-hunters was as follows. A fee having been paid to a cattle
drover, an animal was selected from his herd, peas were put into its
ears, sticks pointed with iron were driven into its body, and the poor
beast, when mad with rage and pain, was hunted through the streets
with a yelling mob of men, women and dogs behind it ... until the
exhausted victim could no longer be goaded to any show of resistance
or movement. . . .

On Sundays the favourite resort was a field adjoining Bethnal Green
Church, and here some hundreds of men and boys assembled during
the hours of divine service to indulge in less exciting games, such as
dog-fighting and duck-hunting. . . .

The Receiver of the Metropolitan police wrote to Lord Rosslyn in
1831 'It will hardly be credited that within the last five or seven years
. . . people were robbed in open day . . . and women, stripped of their
clothes, were tied to gates by the roadside; the existing police being set
at defiance'.

John Sayer, the Bow Street officer, stated before a Parliamentary
Committee that there were streets in Westminster ... so dangerous
that no policeman dare venture there, unless accompanied by five or
six of his comrades, for fear of being cut to pieces. . . .

In 1812 the crime of murder was so common and so much on the
increase that a Parliamentary Committee was appointed. . . . Spurious
coin and counterfeit notes flooded the country. (It had been calculated
that at this time there were as many as 50 fraudulent mints in the
metropolis alone; between 1805 and 1816 there were more than 200
executions for forgery).4

During the course of the nineteenth century this lawless violence,
this pleasure in fighting and in witnessing the pain and humiliation
of others, and the gratuitous suffering of animals almost completely
disappeared. The most spectacular drop in criminal activities took

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

place in the decade 1850-1 860 ;5 and in 1824 that peculiarly English
institution, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals, was founded. The consciences of the upper classes of
society seem to have been somewhat disturbed by the merciless
exploitation of children in the nineteenth century, as is shown by the
various Royal Commissions on the employment of children and the
like; but there is an interval of over sixty years between the founding
of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and
the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
This latter was founded in 1889; the first local Society for protecting
abused children was founded in 1882 at Liverpool, when action was
taken to establish a Home for Children instead of a Home for Dogs.
At this meeting the local President said: 'I am here for the prevention
of cruelty and I can't draw the line at children.'6

These societies for the prevention of cruelty are doubly significant
in their implications; they show that there are large groups in the
population much preoccupied with the horrid thought of cruelty
inflicted on the weak and helpless, willing to give their time and their
money to remedy this state of affairs, and to harrow their feelings
by the vivid literature which describes the misdeeds ; but they also
imply the existence of another large group, who, from pleasure or
callousness, inflict persistent and unnecessary sufferings and depriva-
tions on the weak and helpless. Both the number of subscribers and
the number of prosecutions bear out these implications; cruelty and
aggression are English preoccupations.7

Readiness to fight, and approval of aggressive behaviour, would
seem to have lingered longer in the working classes. There is the
history of political violence all through the nineteenth century, from
the Chartists and Tolpuddle to the great dock strike; but besides
this there was the mockery and (on occasion) physical aggression
against the more fortunate classes which Dickens symbolised in
Trabb's boy. Up to the beginning of this century, probably up to
1914, well-dressed adults risked mockery, well-dressed children and
adolescents assault, from the ill-clad. In the appropriate localities
fights between 'town' and 'gown' seem to have been common, and
by no means always provoked by the gown-wearers. Together with
many of my contemporaries I can just remember the jeering of the
'rude boys* which the late George Orwell described so vividly, and the
fear, probably not altogether groundless, which women felt at going
about unaccompanied on lonely roads, or anywhere at all at night.

What has happened to all this aggression, this violence, combative-
ness and mockery ? In other respects, so far as the novels and memoirs

ASSUMPTIONS

and so on can be taken as evidence, the English people don't seem
to have changed their character very much, and I don't think
anybody would argue that the characters in Fielding or Smollett,
Jane Austen or Dickens, could possibly belong to any other nation;
but so far as public life is concerned, there does seem to have been
this remarkable change from the Roaring Boys to the Boys' Brigade,
from John Bull to John Citizen.

A psychologist dealing with a similar case in an individual would
probably suspect that the aggression had changed direction, that
instead of being manifested in public life, it was being discharged
somewhere else; and this 'somewhere else' has three possible loca-
tions. It may be inside the family, behind the drawn window-
curtains, where all is smooth outside, all in turmoil within; it may
be dissipated in fantasy, in reading about, and dreaming about the
misdeeds of others, or concentrated on some rarely seen or unseen
scapegoat; or it may be turned inwards on the self, with a great deal
of 'self-punishment' manifested in either the reproaches of an overly
strict conscience, or in various illnesses or aches and pains which are
now called psycho-somatic, and were earlier called functional. It is
theoretically possible, of course, that it has just disappeared; but in
an individual one would expect a number of other changes — an
increase in gaiety and spontaneity, for example — to occur simul-
taneously with a real diminution of aggression. This last does not
seem to be the case for the English people as a whole.

Because this problem of aggression seemed to me so basic to an
understanding of the English character, I framed a number of
questions whose replies gave an opportunity for expressing aggres-
sion or attitudes towards it. The chief of these were:8

25. What do you most disapprove of about your present neighbours?

80, What do you think of the police?

56. What are the three chief faults wives (husbands) tend to have?

59. If a husband (wife) finds his (her) wife (husband) having an
affair with another man (woman), what should he (she) do ?

58. What do you think goes to wreck a marriage?

61. Generally speaking, do you consider children need more or less
discipline than they get nowadays?

67. How should a really naughty boy be punished?

69. Are there any forms of punishment you don't approve of for
boys?

68. How should a really naughty girl be punished?

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

70. Are there any forms of punishment you don't approve of for
girls?

66. If you were told that a small child, say, between 3 and 8,
had done something really bad, what would you think the child had
done?

Of course, the answers to these questions also provide a great deal
of information on the ostensible subjects ; but I hoped that they would
give me some leads as well as to the ways contemporary English
people deal with the problems of aggression today.

A second assumption I made about the English character, is that
most English people are shy and afraid of strangers, and consequently
very lonely. This assumption was developed less from literature
than from observation. I had also been much impressed by my
visits to the Peckham Health Centre and the reports issued on the
work of this pioneer institute.9 The Peckham Health Centre was
established in one of the residential areas of South London as a
means of studying the incidence of health, rather than sickness, in
the community. The building contained every sort of amenity for
all ages and sexes, from nurseries to sitting rooms, from a swimming
pool to a theatre, cafeterias and full medical equipment. Member-
ship, which naturally included the enjoyment of all these amenities,
was provided for a very small weekly subscription, but was limited to
families living in a very restricted area (less than a square mile)
around the Centre; the conditions were that only families — not
individuals — could join, and each member should have a thorough,
and free, medical examination every six months. Despite these
numerous and great advantages, never more than half the families
eligible for membership were actually members at any one time.

All the members came from the same small neighbourhood, in
which many of them had lived for several years. Nevertheless it was
altogether exceptional if a new member family, on joining, had any
acquaintances or friends in the Centre. Most of them had no friends
at all in the neighbourhood, many of them no friends, un-
connected by kinship ties, in London. Even without medical
treatment, many of the members improved dramatically in physical
and psychological health during their membership; the inference
was that the finding of congenial companions for sport or hobby,
gossip or craft, and the loosening of the constricting bonds of isolated
family life were chiefly responsible for this beneficent change.

There was no reason to suppose that Peckham was anomalous
as far as the London suburbs were concerned. I partially accepted
the stereotype that there might be less loneliness among the poor

ASSUMPTIONS

and in the cities of the North; but I considered that, as far as prac-
ticable, it would be useful to discover the extent of loneliness, of
sociability, and of community participation among the population.
The chief of the questions designed to elicit this information were:

20. Not counting relations or in-laws, do you know most — a few —
hardly any — no — neighbours by sight?

21. To speak to?

22. To drop in on without an invitation?

23. To visit for a meal or an evening?

19. Would you say that your best friends live near you (that is,
within walking distance) a short distance away (say, a mile or so) or
far away? Or some in all three?

26. Are there places outside your own homes or the street where you
meet neighbours to have a chat? (Please mark in the first column if you
visit such places at all, and in the second column how often you have been
this last month.) Church or chapel meeting rooms : Men's club; Women's
club or Women's Institute: Mixed club; Youth club: Gymnasium:
Sports ground: Dance hall: Political club: Public house: Cafe; other
(please specify).

24. Do you think you could rely on your neighbours in a pinch?
Entirely — to a large extent — to a small extent — not at all — it depends.

33. If you wanted to spend a pleasant evening, what sort of company
would you like to spend it in? (Please mark in the first column the
company you'd like best with T, next best with *2' and so on; and in the
second column mark the company which you had last Saturday evening.)
One man: One girl: A foursome (two couples): A group of men: A
group of girls: A mixed group: With my own family: Alone: Working:
Was ill.

35. Do you think it natural for young people to be shy?

36. Do you think you were exceptionally shy ?

37. Are you less shy than you used to be?

38. Do you think shyness a good thing?

75. Do your children play with other children whose parents you
don't know? Often: Occasionally: Never.

76. Do you tell your children not to play with some of the neighbours'
children?

77. Do you forbid your children to visit some of the neighbours*
houses?

If yes, what are your reasons?

I can find very little evidence from literature or other sources to
show whether this shyness and fear of strangers has long been

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

a specifically English trait. For Jane Austen, such shyness is a sign
of ill-breeding (Sir William Lucas and Maria, for example), but so
was its opposite, 'ease' (perhaps Mrs. Elton's most damning charac-
teristic); and for Dickens shyness was a sign of near-imbecility
(Toots and Georgina Podsnap are striking examples) ; but there can
be few people temperamentally less fitted to understand this emotion
than Dickens was. On the continent in the eighteenth and nineteenth
century the English milord had a great reputation for reserve, for
phlegme; and this reserve is mirrored in a number of the characters
whom Jane Austen asks us to admire, and quite a number of the
aristocrats (Sir Leicester Dedlock, for example) whom Dickens asks
us not to admire, at least not without many reservations. But this is
usually portrayed as an aristocratic, an upper class, type of be-
haviour; and I wanted to know about the whole population.

One of the problems which bedevils the discussion of the English
character — I suppose this should rightly be called another assump-
tion— is that it is almost impossible to write three pages without
mentioning Class; and Class today is almost a rude word, except
for the militant working class, and we are all, myself included,
excessively mealy-mouthed and embarrassed by the subject. We
feel it to be an indelicacy to point out that there are differences
between the classes; lip-service to democracy apparently entails not
merely the admission that one man is as good as another (which is,
in certain meanings of the word, undeniable) but reticence on the
ways in which one group is different from another group within
the population. But this reticence in a book about English character
or English society is as ludicrous as the reticence about the organs of
reproduction which can be found in some of the nineteenth century
text-books of anatomy and physiology.

I was so convinced of the importance of social class that I had
every question in the questionnaire analysed by these criteria.
I also wanted to establish the pattern of English class structure,
rather than impose one and asked:

7. If you were asked what class you belonged to, how wpuld you
describe yourself?

The answers are analysed in detail in a subsequent chapter;10 but
it may be said here that the vast majority of my respondents place
themselves in one of six classes. Most of them call themselves simply
'middle class' or 'working class'; but some make finer distinctions
and call themselves 'upper middle' or 'lower middle', 'upper working
class' or 'lower working class'. None of my respondents called

ASSUMPTIONS

themselves 'upper class' with or without modification; so I have
no ^evidence from this source to show whether the upper class is
divided into one, two (as I suspect) or three sub-groups.

This is really a parenthesis. We were discussing the loneliness of
the English, especially the loneliness of the urban lower middle class
—there, it's out!— and working class as illustrated by the Peckham
experiment. Is this a general urban phenomenon, a concomitant to
life in big cities, wherever these cities may happen to be, London or
Chicago, Birmingham or Berlin, Manchester or Calcutta, Shanghai
or Liverpool?11 Or is there something specifically English about it?
I know of no evidence which could decide this problem con-
clusively; but my impression is that, though life in big cities every-
where has a tendency to isolate and, as it were, atomize the inhabi-
tants, this process has been carried further, and for more people,
in England than in any other country with which I am familiar.
To the universal conditions of urban life the English brought the
shyness which I assumed to be a widely spread characteristic.

Psychologically, shyness is a type of anxiety which is more or less,
but never wholly, rational. With most people probably the fears,
the anxieties, are not wholly articulate and may not be wholly
conscious. It would seem that in most people these fears have several
components. Probably the most generally recognized is the fear that
strangers will reject one or treat one with contempt, because one is
not sufficiently attractive or entertaining, well-educated or well-
spoken, lacks the approved manners or the approved skills. When
one fears one will be, or in fact has been, treated in this manner, the
strangers are described as 'snobbish', 'swanky*, 'pretentious', 'stand-
offish', and so on. Another component of this fear is that strangers
will corrupt or contaminate one, either by undermining one's moral
principles and leading oneself or one's family into disapproved-of
indulgences, extravagances or other bad habits, or by undermining
one's social position and the esteem which one presently enjoys
through association with people 'who don't know how to behave',
who are 'no class', 'not p.l.u.'

Expressed in another way, both these fears can be described as
fear that strangers will be aggressive, either fairly directly through
rudeness and lack of kindness, or, more symbolically through attack-
ing one's moral or social position. Shyness thus links up, at least in
theory, with my first assumption of the importance of aggression;
we impute aggressive intentions or potentialities to strangers and
then avoid them by shyness, by 'keeping oneself to oneself, by 'being
backward in coining forward*. But this is only half tfye picture;

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

we are ourselves strangers to the people who are strangers to us;
other people impute to us the aggressiveness we impute to them. Is
the charge as true about us as about them?

Most of us, I imagine, would indignantly deny the suggestion;
we may not be particularly 'forth-coming'; but we certainly have
no wish to hurt people, either directly or indirectly. On a conscious
level this is probably true; on an unconscious level it may well be a
different matter. From a theoretical point of view, the projection of
bad intentions on to others nearly always implies the unconscious
wish to act in the same way on the part of the projector; it is not the
sinners who discover sin in the most unlikely places. If, on an
unconscious level, most of us harbour the wish to humiliate or
corrupt others, as we suspect others of wishing to humiliate or
corrupt us, then that gives one more motive for our shyness and
withdrawal. For we certainly don't consciously approve of these
wishes ; by 'keeping ourselves to ourselves' we avoid the occasion for
temptation, we defend our strong moral principles from the sabotage
which would result if our unconscious wishes were given free rein.

These strong moral principles are a third (or fourth) assumption I
made about the English character. Nearly every foreign observer
notes, either with approval or disapproval, that the English do not
easily give way to their impulses; they are described as 'law-abiding*
or 'restrained', as 'puritanical* or 'cold', 'sheepish* or 'disciplined'.
I don't think there is much question that this stereotype contains
some truth; the English as a whole do have high ideals of conduct
both for themselves and for others, whether they are dealing with
legal rights or duties or what is somewhat narrowly called 'morals',
which means roughly all sexual activities outside marriage.

The ideals are almost certainly there; but what about the practices?
I somewhat suspected that the multiplication of laws and controls
under wartime and post-war rationing had weakened the general
observation of the law; and, possibly, the strains of war and general
military service had loosened the stringent sexual morality which
had, reputedly, characterized the English of recent generations.

I had a considerable number of questions which would reveal
ideals of conduct; but fewer from which I could hope to get a picture
of actual practice. On respect for the law, the most important
question asked for views about 'fiddling', the euphemism which has
been very widely given to circumventions of the rationing and
control systems. People were asked to choose among 9 statements on
the subject, 3 of which were admissions, 1 an outright denial, 3 more
conventional moralizations on , the subject, and 2 'projections',

ASSUMPTIONS

putting law-breaking on to outsiders, and implicitly rejecting it for
one's own group. If people agreed with more than one statement,
they were asked to give them a rank order; and this order should
show whether people were consistent in their views or no. The
question read :

81. There's a lot of talk about 'fiddling' nowadays. Please mark
which of the following statements most nearly represents your own
opinion. If more than one do, please mark the most important T, the next
most important '2' — and so on.

Nearly everybody fiddles nowadays.

Most people fiddle occasionally, but not many do regularly.

With all the rules and regulations, one can't help having to break

a rule sometimes.

It is unpatriotic to fiddle.

None of my family has ever got anything 'off the ration'.

It is wrong to break the law under any circumstances.

Most fiddling is done by profiteers.

It is unfair to try to get more than others.

Most fiddling is done by foreigners.

Similar instructions were given for a group of sentences giving
conventional explanations for the publicized increase in juvenile
delinquency. This question was devised chiefly to find out views on
'character formation', on what was thought to be the most impor-
tant source of high moral principles; but it also throws some light
on the way people think their own character was formed.

79. One reads a lot in the papers about the post-war increase in
crime, especially among young people. Please mark which of the following
reasons seems to you most important. . . .

People got into bad ways in the Forces.

Children whose fathers were in the Forces didn't have proper

discipline.

Children who were evacuated weren't properly looked after.

Modern parents aren't strict enough.

Modern schools aren't strict enough.

Young people follow the bad example of crime films and crime

stories in books and on the radio.

Young people are neglecting religion.

These questions have the scientific advantage of being easily trans-
ferable to statistical tables; but I expected to get most insight from
a very simple question indeed:

80. What do you think of the police?

I expected that views on sexual morality and sexual behaviour

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

would be more difficult to elicit. I devised one question to try to
discover whether the belief in the decline of morals was generally
held.

40. Please mark in the first column the statement you most AGREE with
and in the second column the statement you most DISAGREE with.
(Only ONE statement for agree and ONE for disagree?)

There is much more immorality than there used to be.
Human nature hasn't changed, but people are not so narrow-
minded as they used to be.

It is right and natural for young people to want to make love.
It's other people's nasty minds which make all the mischief.
People are really more moral today than they were thirty years ago.

The following questions were also expected to elicit views on
sexual morality, and to reflect, at least to a certain degree, individual
practice.

49. Do you think a young man should have some sexual experience
before he gets married? Yes: No: Don't know.

51. Why?

50. Do you think a young woman should have some sexual experience
before she gets married? Yes: No: Don't know.

52. Why?

59. If a husband (wife) finds his (her) wife (husband) having an
affair with another woman (man) what should he (she) do ?

Two questions specifically asked about actual sexual behaviour:

47. Not counting marriage, have you ever had a real love affair?

45. Before you became engaged to your wife (husband) did you ever
seriously consider marrying another woman (man)?

I had always accepted, more or less as a stereotype, the statement
so neatly made by Somerset Maugham, and set out at such length
by many other writers : The English are not a sexual nation and you
cannot easily persuade them that a man will sacrifice anything
important for love/12 This belief was on a rather different level to
the assumptions I have discussed hitherto, for it was more about
behaviour than about motives; though, if it were true, psychological
hypotheses would have to be devised to account for it. First of all,
I wanted the facts; and I had a number of questions which I hoped
would throw some light on this question. The most direct was:

48. In marriage do you think sexual love is very important? Fairly
important? Not very important? Not important at all?

ASSUMPTIONS

In the Somerset village where I had lived for many years I had
been struck with the suspicion— jealousy is perhaps too strong a
word— with which the news of any tete-a-tete between two people
of opposite sex, almost irrespective of age or condition, was nearly
invariably greeted. If a male and female were known to have been
alone, it could only be for one reason. In Home and Beauty Somerset
Maugham treats such suspicion as judicial; the solicitor grumbles
'Why, the other day I came across [a judge] who wouldn't believe
the worst had happened when a man and a woman, not related in
any way, mind you, were proved to have been alone in a room to-
gether for three-quarters of an hour.' In my village there would
have been no doubt at all, at least as far as the gossip value went:
but I had no means of knowing whether this attitude was widespread.

Despite the watchful eyes of the neighbours, girls and young men
did get together, mostly in the fields in the summer evenings; but
the process of courtship and engagement seemed a slow one, often
lasting years. To try to discover if this pattern were general I asked
my married respondents:

46. How long had you known your wife (husband) before you were
engaged?
How long was your engagement ?

And I asked all respondents:

44. Do you think English people fall in love in the way you see
Americans doing it on the films ?

The pattern which I had in mind, and which I think most American
films illustrate, is immediate attraction at first sight, courting be-
haviour at the first opportunity, ardour and impatience, at least on
the part of the man, culminating fairly rapidly in a marriage founded
on mutual attraction.

I thought it at least possible that English attitudes were very
different, that love or attraction were less valued and other qualities
more valued. So I asked:

42. Would you say you had ever been really in love?

43. Do you expect to fall really in love sometime?

39. How old were you when you first started being really interested
in girls (boys) ?

55. What do you think are the three most important qualities a wife
(husband) should have?

56. What are the three chief faults that wives (husbands) tend to have ?

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

I also expected to get relevant information from the questions I
asked all my married respondents :

58. What do you think goes to wreck a marriage?

57. What do you think goes to make for a happy marriage?

My final inquiry on this aspect of English life was an attempt to
discover the attitudes held by men and women on woman's sexual
nature. Did they consider, as I believe the Americans and the French
do to a considerable extent, that women have sexual feelings of the
same urgency and nature as men ? Or was the attitude promulgated by
the Victorian novelists, that 'good' women were more 'spiritual'
than men and, though they might respond to their husband, would
feel no spontaneous urges or desires of a sexual nature, one which
was still held by a sizable portion of the English population? I
devised a question which would have given a quite unambiguous
answer on the physiological level; but the editors thought that it
might cause unnecessary offence. Although I doubted this myself,
I was willing to yield to their greater experience; and so to my
regret the question was taken out of the first draft.13 It is only infor-
mation on this level of concreteness which would permit the drawing
of unambiguous conclusions ; but I had to make do with such infor-
mation as I could get on more generalized attitudes from the question :

53. Please mark in the first column the statement you most AGREE
A, and in the second column the statement you most DISAGREE with.
(Only ONE statement for agree and ONE for disagree.)

Most women don't care much about the physical side of sex.
Women don't have such an animal nature as men.
Women really enjoy the physical side of sex just as much as men.
Women tend to enjoy sex more than men.

With one important exception, the hypotheses outlined above
represent the more important of the assumptions of which I am con-
scious which determined my choice of questions. There were a
number of questions which were designed simply to elicit information
which I thought might be interesting without thinking that psycho-
logical deductions could be inferred from the answers. I was interested
in what sort of houses people lived in; how long they had lived in
them; whether their parents lived with or near them; whether they
lived near their own blood-relations or relations in-law. A second
batch of questions was designed to discover the importance of
wartime experience and comradeship in civilian life. People who

ASSUMPTIONS

had been members of the forces were asked how many friends from
the forces they had seen or written to in the past year, and so on. I
asked a number of questions about belief in the occult or super-
natural: whether people had mascots or lucky or unlucky days or
numbers; if they could tell fortunes, and if so how; if they visited
fortune tellers, and, if so, how often; whether they read horoscopes,
and, if so, whether they believed them and followed the advice
given; whether they believed in ghosts and, if so, whether they had
themselves seen or heard a ghost, or knew a person who they be-
lieved had such an experience? These questions were intended as a
pendant to the questions on religious beliefs and practices. I knew,
from numerous reports, that a relatively small proportion of the
population were constant church-goers, whereas every popular paper
carries a 'horoscope' feature; and it seemed at least plausible that
belief in revealed religion had given way to belief in magic or occult
practices.

The one further assumption, which was important in deciding
what questions to include, was not specifically concerned with the
English character. It is an assumption which lies at the base of the
belief that character can be studied and analysed. Put very briefly,
it can be called the historical concept of character formation!
Except for identical twins, every infant is born with its unique
constitution and genetically determined potentialities; but the way
in which, and the extent to which, these potentialities are realized
depends on what happens to the infant after birth, the order in
which these experiences occur, and the customs and values of the
society in which it is reared.

A simple example is speech. Only a tiny minority of human babies
is born without the physical basis which will make the acquisition
of speech possible; there is also another small unfortunate group
born with physical defects, a cleft palate or disproportionately
shaped tongue, which render impossible the production of some
sounds. These defectives apart, all human beings are born with the
potentialities of making any or all the sounds which occur in all
human languages the world over. But in nearly all cases by the time
a child has learned to speak it only makes the sounds used in its
native language, the sounds made- by its guardians and parents
and people who have brought it up.*4 In large societies this range
may well be more limited than that for the country as a whole; the
child will acquire the sounds typical of its class or region.

As time goes on, the potential ability to reproduce unaccustomed
sounds steadily decreases. Up to the age of about six or seven a

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

child can pick up a foreign language or dialect without conscious
strain or falsification of the sounds; but with each year even this
potentiality diminishes; and it is a very exceptional adolescent or
adult who can learn to speak a foreign language without a trace of
his or her native accent. As far as is known, this is in no way deter-
mined by heredity or physiology; it is the experiences the child has
after birth which first determine the sounds which it will learn to
make; and then subsequently makes it progressively harder to
modify or change the original pattern.

Languages do not consist merely of sounds, of words. Each
language has its own special syntax, its grammar, the rules by which
words are organized into meaningful and relatively unambiguous
sentences. Syntax is one of the most complex of human inventions,
so complex that even today there are only about three languages for
which a really adequate grammar, covering all the practices, has
been prepared. Even learning the syntax of a closely related language,
as for example French or German for an English speaker, is an
arduous task, demanding considerable time and effort.

Nevertheless, every child learns the syntax of its native language
without much conscious effort on its part, or much detailed instruc-
tion on the part of its elders. Minor faults may be arbitrarily corrected
— 'that's not the right word', 'you shouldn't say that' — but the
underlying principles are seldom expressed or contravened. All
French children learn to use gender, and no English child does;
no English child uses the sentence order which seems so inevitable
to all German children, and vice versa. People find the syntax of
their native language 'natural', however complicated it may be for
foreign speakers; and they learn it, with the numerous rules and
exceptions, without being fully conscious of what they have learned.
Complex habits concerning the arrangement and modification of
words have been acquired without either teacher or child being
articulate about what has been taught. And, in its more important
outlines, this syntax will be identical for all members of the society
which uses the language; slight variations may mark differences of
class or region; but these are insignificant compared with the large
body of rules which are universally accepted, and which do not
recur in their entirety in any other language. Probably no item is
unique; but the combination of items and the way they are patterned
are unique for every human language.

This is more than an analogy with the formation of national
character; it is an aspect of national character. The syntax by itself
structures the world for its speakers. Ideas of time and sequence are

ASSUMPTIONS

largely determined by verbal forms; languages which possess gender
group objects together in a way which would not occur to speakers
of gender-less languages. The thoughts we can have about the world
are to a very great degree determined by the words our language
possesses to express them.

In the same way and at the same time as the vast majority of
human children are acquiring the vocabulary, syntax, and intona-
tions of the language which will make them members of the society
into which they were born and will enable them to communicate
freely with other people who have acquired the same native language,
they are acquiring the characteristics and motives, the values and
the beliefs which will make them recognizable members of their
respective societies. Nobody can tell whether a naked new-born baby
is English or American, French or Danish, Russian or German;
by the time that baby is six years old he or she is a recognizable
national of a specific society, even without the identification of
speech. Of course, the child is also an individual with its unique
character and appearance; but this does not contradict the fact
that he has also acquired the character of a member of his society.
In the same way, the fact that we can nearly always recognize the
voices of our friends, so that we immediately know who is speaking,
does not contradict the fact that they all speak the same language with
the same sounds and the same syntax. National character is a close
analogue to language; the syntax, the sounds, the total vocabulary
are common to all ; intonation, choice of words, phrasing of sentences,
style of speaking or writing vary to a certain extent with each person.
National character is an attempt to isolate and identify the psycho-
logical equivalents of syntax and sounds, the shared motives and
values and predispositions; it has as little to say about individual
characters and idiosyncracies as a study of grammar has to say
about individual styles of speaking or writing.

If the observation is true that the main lines of national character
are acquired early in life — say, roughly, the first six years — then it is
obviously valuable to know as precisely as possible what happens
to infants and young children in any given society during those
formative years. This knowledge is not essential; if you know
enough about the adults your description can be adequate without
delving into the experiences of childhood; and the knowledge of
childhood experiences in isolation will never tell you how adults do
develop, it will at most suggest ways in which they can develop.
But if your knowledge of the adults is only partial, then information
about the early experiences of life can be of the greatest assistance. If

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

you can say 'Children with these sorts of experiences (among others)
turn into adults with these sorts of characteristics (among others)',
you can then develop hypotheses, in the light of psychological
theory, which can link these two bodies of data and which may well
suggest new possibilities which had before been overlooked.

Although people, and peoples, change they do not seem to do so
very rapidly. Probably Adam and Eve were the first people to com-
plain about the younger generation; and Cain and Abel the first to
decide that they weren't going to make the same mistakes as, or
grow up into the same sort of people as, the older generation. But
societies are, relatively speaking, remarkably stable; people grow
old and die, and a new generation takes their place without violent
shocks; the institutions of the society, the society itself, maintain
their character though the personnel changes; new inventions arise,
material conditions alter, there are even occasional political revolu-
tions ; but these new inventions, or conditions, or political innovations
are manned by people whose characters are already formed; and
it seems as though more often people adapt the new conditions to
their existing characters, rather then remould their characters to
the new conditions. It is possible to write history, to trace the develop-
ment of a society over generations; but would this be possible if
there were not continuity between the generations, if the sons did
not replace their fathers and the daughters their mothers, if character
and institutions, not merely geography and natural resources, were
not relatively constant?

Because of my assumption that information on the way children
are reared is valuable in all studies of national character, I asked
in all 23 questions of all the parents who answered my questionnaire.
This is few enough for so complex a subject; and I had to choose
with great care the areas where I thought indicative answers could
be obtained. Many things which I should like to have known can
better be discovered by observation than by questioning; on some
subjects, such as infant feeding, there was luckily good and recent
information which I would not need to duplicate.

With my initial assumption of the importance of the problem of
aggression, I concentrated largely on questions of training and dis-
cipline, of naughtiness and punishment. The other major subjects
which L tried to cover were religious education and some of the
means by which, I thought, social classes might be differentiated.

I asked the very wide question:
61. Generally speaking, do you consider children need more or less

discipline than they get nowadays? More: Less: The same.

ASSUMPTIONS

This question had been asked in a survey conducted by Odhams
Press Research Branch earlier in 1949, so that I would have a check
on my results. I also asked the very concrete questions :

63. When should a young child start being trained to be clean?

62. Which is worse for the child, starting training too early? or too
late? or doesn't it make much difference?

Cleanliness training is the earliest discipline which children have
to undergo. Insufficient feeding, or feeding at times which do not
correspond to the child's natural physiological rhythms of hunger,
may provide earlier deprivations and feelings of anxiety or insecurity,
but there is practically nothing the child can do about this; but
cleanliness training depends on the child's disciplined control of its
muscles, up to the limit of its powers; the demands made on, and
the expectations held for, the child in this context could be expected
to give a clear picture of the parents' attitudes to such subjects,
and would cover an important part of the child's social learning in
the earlier months or years of its life. Psycho-analysts have elaborated
at great length the probable sequelulae of early or late training.15

On the subjects of discipline and punishment I asked, besides the
questions already quoted16 on the ways naughty boys or naughty
girls should be punished, and what forms of punishment were not
approved of for boys and girls :

64. Who is the proper person to punish a child who has done some-
thing really bad? Mother: Father: Teacher: Other (please specify).

65.. Why?

Knowledge of who holds the disciplinary role in childhood gives
important clues to the attitudes towards authority, and the types
of authority figure which will be expected and respected in later life.
I also suspected that there might be consistent differences in class or
region concerning the role of the parents in the family. Finally I
asked:

66. If you were told that a small child, say between 3 and 8, had done
something really bad, what would you think the child had done?

This was, purposely, a vague question; I thought that by their
answers parents might indicate the greatest fear they had for their
own children, and possibly indirectly the greatest fear they had of
their own impulses. I expected that there would be a certain amount
of reminiscence or anecdote, which would of course be useful; but

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

I hoped to get some picture of what parents thought children would
develop into if they were not disciplined.

I was interested in reward as well as punishment. I wanted to
know if children were encouraged to act properly as well as pun-
ished for acting improperly; so I asked:

71. Should children be praised in front of others if they are good
and helpful? Yes: No: Don't know.

72. Do you give your children regular pocket-money when they start
going to school? Yes : No.

73. Do you give your children money or other rewards when they are
useful and helpful? Always: Sometimes: Occasionally: Never.

74. Would you let your children take money for doing jobs for
neighbours such as running errands, watching babies, or helping them ?
Yes : No : Don't know.

These last questions about money had more implications besides
the question of direct rewards. I wondered to what extent parents
encouraged their children to early independence; and, taking the
American practice as a model, it seemed as though allowing or en-
couraging children to earn money, whether inside or outside the
home, as opposed to giving them 'unearned' pocket-money, might
give a suggestive indication. Furthermore I suspected, chiefly on
the basis of my own upbringing and that of my contemporaries,
that there would be a major class difference between those who
allowed their children to accept money 'from strangers' and those
who did not.

I further thought that one of the major emphases of the upbringing
of middle class children was the prevention of their associating with
children of a lower class. Consequently I asked:

75. Do your children play with other children whose parents you
don't know? Often: Occasionally: Never.

76. Do you tell your children not to play with some of the neighbours'
children? Yes: No.

77. Do you forbid your children to visit some of the neighbours'
houses? Yes: No.

78. If Yes, what are your reasons?

Such then are the major assumptions which I held when I drew up
the questionnaire. Subsequent chapters will show what I actually
discovered.

ASSUMPTIONS

NOTES TO CHAPTER TWO

1. Geoffrey Gorer: 'Some Notes on the British Character,' Horizon, Vol. XX, Nos.
120-121, December 1949-January 1950.

2. Maung Htin Aung: Burmese Drama (London, 1937).

3. Mtmoires de Casanova (Paris, Gamier Freres, n.d. Vol. VI, p. 350).

4. Quoted from Captain W. L. Melville Lee: A History of Police in England
(Methuen, London, 1901), especially pp. 196-222. This is a very well-documented
history of crime and its control in England from Saxon times up to the end of the
nineteenth century.

5. Lee, op. cit, p. 337. See Chapter XV, p. 294, and Appendix One. It is instruc-
tive to contrast the number of comic descriptions of physical mishaps, fights, etc.,
and the attitude to the law, m the earlier, and in the later novels of Dickens : on the
one hand, Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby, or Oliver Twist; on the other, Bleak
House or David Copperfield.

6. I am indebted to the Secretaries of the R.S.P.C.A. and the N.S.P.C.C. for the
information above. In the year ending February 1952, 101,767 children came to the
notice of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and 99,780
in the following year.

7. This paragraph should not be interpreted to mean that the English are unique
in either the practice or prevention of cruelty to children and animals. No single trait
is unique. I do not know whether investigations would show that, in proportion to
population, there were a greater number of prosecutions for these offences than in
other countries; though I suspect that, outside the mainly Protestant countries of
Western Europe and North America, cruelty to, or neglect of, children is much less
common, and cruelty to, or neglect of, animals much more common. It is not the
incidence of cruelty, but the preoccupation with it, to which I wish to call attention.

8. The numbers are those provided for the tables and not those printed on the
questions in the questionnaire form.

9. Pearse and Williamson: The Case for Action (London, 1931). Staff Report,
Pioneer Health Centre (London, 1938). Pearse and Crocker: The Peckham Experiment
(London, 1943).

10. See Chapter Three.

11. See David Riesman: The Lonely Crowd (Yale University Press, 1950).

12. W. Somerset Maugham: Collected Plays, Vol. Ill, Preface (London, 1932).

13. The question read: Which of these statements do you agree with? Women don't
have the same type of sexual climax as men: Women have a climax very much like
men do : Don't know.

14. If a child has a nurse who speaks to it in a different language to its parents, or
if, as was general with the Czarist Russian aristocracy, governesses or tutors speaking
se> eral different languages are in charge of the child, it will learn the sounds of the
languages of all the people it is in contact with. These polyglot potentialities are
developed in relatively few cases.

15. See Otto Fenichel: The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (W. W. Norton,
New York, 1945), and its exhaustive bibliography and references,

16. See p. 17.

CHAPTER THREE

PEOPLE AND HOMES

THE average English man or woman calls him or herself 'working
class*, finished full time schooling at 14 or under, is married, had
(in January 1951) a family income around £8 a week, and lived in
a terraced or semi-detached house, which had been his or her home
for more than four but less than ten years in a town with more than
100,000 inhabitants. This is the average, the man in the street, some-
thing like half the population; the range, of course, is considerable.

Nine out of ten English people feel no hesitation in assigning
themselves to a social class. Five of them call themselves working
class and three middle class ; of the remainder, two in a hundred
call themselves upper middle class, seven lower middle class, three
upper working class and one lower working class; one in a hundred
says he or she does not believe in class ; and a twelfth of the popula-
tion either misunderstands the question, or says it doesn't know.1

The answers to the question about social class are not given frivo-
lously; the added comments show that many people have thought
seriously about the matter. Whether they have thought realistically,
whether a person's own social placing would be the same as that
given objectively by an analytical observer is another matter which
will be discussed subsequently; but there is no question that class-
membership is a most important facet of an Englishman's view of
himself as a member of society; and the class to which he assigns
himself is nation-wide, and not local or provincial as it is in some
other societies.

Class is not directly correlated with income, certainly not with
current income; this is a point which many people make. Thus, a
prosperous married man from Colville says of himself: 'Though in
the higher wages class — definitely working class'; and a well-off
married woman of 38 from Leytonstone in Essex: 'I was born in
the slums of London of working class parents and although I have
attained a higher standard of living I still maintain I am working
class.' By contrast, a 49 year old married man from Swindon writes :
'Middle class, trying to keep up home and appearance on inadequate
wages'; and a young married woman from Yorkshire: 'Middle
class farming stock reduced to living in a lower class industrial area.'

As the last quotation shows, the status of one's parents is of some
importance for calculating one's own class position, particularly

PEOPLE AND HOMES

perhaps for women. A fairly prosperous married woman from
Kentish Town says of herself: Through no fault of mine, I was born
of poor parents, hence, Working Class.' A well-off and well-educated
London woman described herself as: *Upper middle; distinguishable
only from the upper class only by not having an old family and not
working land.'

The people who reject or 'don't believe in' class, mention both
birth and money as false criteria for measuring a person's worth.
A married woman from West Ham says of herself: 'Of no class for
there should be none. We should take a man for his worth and not
by birth accidents'; another from Darlington replies: 'Wouldn't
know, as I do not think the amount you earn has anything to do
with it.'

Education is a major criterion for social status; but in many cases
it may well be a validation of the parent's class, as much as the
establishment of the children's. Relatively very few of those claim-
ing some sort of working class status continued their full education
after the age of 16; and most of those who did call themselves
'upper working class.' The converse however does not hold; quite
a number of the claimants of middle class status left school at 14.2
Specialized education for a recognized profession would seem to
qualify without question for middle class status: thus, a 19-year-old
student from Mossley, Lanes, says: 'As I am studying to become
an Architect I should say Middle Class or mid-way between working
class and middle class.' The subtler derivatives of education, such
as accent or manners, would seem to be more important in this
regard than academic instruction; a young married woman from
St Albans describes herself as: 'Just ordinary working class; I can
look frightfully "bung-ho!" but must keep my mouth closed or else.'

Social class in England would appear therefore to have a number
of determinants: education, including manners and accent, position
of parents, income and occupation; these do not normally coincide
in a one-to-one relationship, with the exception of some occupations.
A professional skill puts its possessor nearly automatically in the
middle class, an occupation based on physical prowess or strength
places the worker in the working class. But a number of occupations
are quite ambiguous. For example, quite a few of my respondents
identified themselves as policemen or special constables, and as the
children, wives or kinsfolk of policemen. Out of 22 policemen or
women 9 described themselves as working class; 5 as middle class;
1 as upper middle class (he left school at 18); 2 as lower middle
class; 4 gave incongruous answers; and one did not answer the

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

question. Of the men who had served as special constables seven
called themselves middle class and two working class; both military
policemen called themselves working class. Twenty-two respondents
were the wives or children of policemen; 10 of these called themselves
middle class, 4 lower middle class, 1 upper working class, and 7
working class. Six respondents had a brother or son in the police;
five called themselves working class, and one lower middle class.
Finally 9 people identified slightly more distant relatives — uncles,
nephews, brothers-in-law — as members of the police force; of these
4 called themselves working class, 3 middle class, 1 does not believe
in class, and 1 did not answer the question. The identification of
social class with occupation, which has been attempted by a number
of English sociologists3 would seem to ignore many of the complica-
tions inherent in the subject.

It was only by chance that I learned the occupation of my respon-
dents or of their parents, for I had not asked for this information.
I did however ask for their family income, and the number of years
they had spent in full time education; and these answers show that
though there is a marked tendency for higher class to be accom-
panied by higher income and more years of schooling, there are
numerous exceptions. Forty-two per cent of those calling themselves
upper middle class had family incomes of over £12 a week, a range
reached by 25 per cent of the middle class, and 12 per cent of the
working class; but 22 per cent of the upper middle class had family
incomes of under £8 a week. Forty-three per cent of those calling
themselves middle class had incomes falling in that range, 59 per
cent of the working class and 76 per cent of the lower working class.
With years of education the picture is similar but rather more marked.
Twenty-eight per cent of those calling themselves upper middle
class continued their education to the age of eighteen and beyond,
as compared with 11 per cent calling themselves middle, 13 per cent
lower middle, 6 per cent upper working, and 2 per cent working class.
On the other hand, no less than 27 per cent of those calling them-
selves upper middle class left school at 14 or younger; 46 per cent
of the middle class, 38 per cent of the lower middle, 54 per cent of
the upper working class, 76 per cent of the working class, and 84
per cent of the lower working class had this minimum education.

All these figures on class membership are on how people rate
themselves, not, as in the various American surveys,4 on how they
are rated by their neighbours. Such information was unobtainable
by this kind of survey. The only check on the validity of such self-
rating is the somewhat impressionistic one of internal consistency.

PEOPLE AND HOMES

The full questionnaire contains numerous clues, from spelling and
hand-writing and vocabulary, to the expression of values and senti-
ments; I think it would be relatively seldom that English readers
would be in doubt of the class, of the respondents if they read a
questionnaire with care, though they might not be fully articulate
about the grounds on which they based their conclusion.

My impression, based on reading all the questionnaires, and that
of some colleagues and friends who have read selected samples, is
that the overwhelming bulk of the English people assign themselves to
the same place in the class structure as their neighbours or an analyst
would give them. There are however two exceptions to this general-
ization, neither of them bulking very large.

The first of these would seem to be a post-1945 phenomenon.
Young people of high family income and prolonged education
describe themselves as working class. 'I work for my living, so I am
working class* is the typical phrasing: 'I do not believe that sections
of the community fall into classes, but as a working member of
society I presume that I belong to the working class' writes a 26-year-
old Streatham woman, with a high family income and some secondary
school education. It would seem as though this is a reflection of
the egalitarian ethos of the Labour party (many of my better educated
respondents were unwittingly recruited by the New Statesman and
Nation5), which divides the population into good workers and
naughty bourgeois (or idle rich); and perhaps describing oneself as
working class may be a magical apotropaic device which would
turn away the envy of the less favoured. This is a small group; and
the device was not, as far as I noticed, adopted by anybody over 30.

Numerically more important, and somewhat more puzzling, are
the poor women, mostly over 45, and unmarried or widowed, with
a minimum of education, who call themselves 'middle class'. Many
of these, going by internal evidence, would not objectively merit
the ascription; and the reasons why they so describe themselves
demand some investigation.

It would seem that, in England, women at home take their class
position from their parents, and, after marriage, from their
husbands: a married woman from a small town near Southampton
describes herself as 'Low class by up-bringing (since marriage
should say middle class)'; and a 20-year-old girl from Studley in
Warwickshire, with some university education writes 'Middle class,
i.e. I come from a decent family and have had a good (average)
education. I have never worked in a factory not that I should mind
doing so I am not snobbish.'

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

If a woman's social class depends on that of the man who is the
head of the household, then what is the status of the spinster living
alone or of the widow? It would seem to be indeterminate, and it is
precisely from these groups that most of our claimants to middle
class status derive. The figures are quite striking; whereas only
24 per cent of the married claim middle class status, 33 per cent of
the single and 35 per cent of the widowed do so.6 It seems possible
that these solitary women are not very fully integrated into the larger
society, and therefore rate themselves in relation to their immediate
circle, rather than to the nation-wide hierarchy. This would have
some resemblance to the American pattern, where at least three-
quarters of the population call themselves middle class, because
some are better, some worse off than they are.

The social position of women in England is puzzling in many
respects. Far more women than men claim middle class status: 33
per cent of the women, compared with 21 per cent of the men in
the main sample, 40 per cent of the women compared with 30 per
cent of the men in the field survey.7 But, at least in the main sample,
women have consistently more secondary and university education
than men; 31 per cent of the men and 40 per cent of the women have
had some education beyond the minimum age of 14; and in each
year, up to university level, women exceed men by at least 2 per cent.
I have not got the figures which would show unambiguously8
whether this illustrates an English pattern, or merely that it was the
more educated women who answered my questionnaire; but it
seems at least possible that about one woman in ten receives some
vocational training in school for such jobs as secretaries, while their
brothers are serving an apprenticeship in the works; and that,
during this training, and in their subsequent pre-marriage employ-
ment in offices, they acquire an, as it were, professional middle class
status which they may not always relinquish at marriage, even
though their husbands call themselves working class, and which
they cling to in spinsterhood and widowhood. The figures are quite
unambiguous; even if the written questionnaire appealed to the more
literate women, this would not have operated in the verbal interviews
of the field survey.

A second variation in claims to higher social status which, though
not quite so pronounced, is consistent, are the differences in the
regions. The South- West region has much the highest proportion of
those claiming middle class status, and the North-East and North
much the lowest; there is a difference of 10 per cent in both the
main sample and the field survey. The other regions are between

PEOPLE AND HOMES

these two poles, London and the South-East and the Midlands being
nearer the South-West pattern, the North-West approaching that
of the North-East and North. In reverse the same patterns are
found for claims to working class status. It seems at least possible
that this is a straight reflection of the differing social composition
of the country; that there are fewer people of middle class status
in the industrial northern regions, and more in the residential and
relatively rural southern regions. It is worth noting that the same
variation does not occur for town size; there are a few more middle
class people in the big metropolises, with over a million inhabitants,
and somewhat fewer in the large towns with between a million and
a hundred thousand inhabitants; but the difference is only a matter
of 3 per cent.

The middle class then, in our sample, contains more women than
men, and proportionately more people from the South and centre of
the country than from the North; the working class is more heavily
masculine, and has a relatively large number of northcountrymen.
These two classes make up more than three-quarters of the popula-
tion; but though the remaining classes are small, relatively speaking,
they are significant; and their composition merits a little attention.

At 2 per cent for both sexes the upper middle class is probably
slightly under-represented for the country as a whole; but it is less
in numbers than in composition that it fails adequately to represent
the professional, higher administrative and land-owning portions
of the English population. The respondents who place themselves
in this category are overwhelmingly students or young people;
there are very few of them over 35, only 1 per cent in each age group.
Judging by the standards of family income and years of education
it seems likely that nearly all of those who placed themselves in this
group would be so placed objectively; but the fact that they are so
young and that so few of them are parents (28 per cent, as contrasted
with 39 per cent for the middle and 52 per cent for the working class)
means that the governing, managerial and officer class — the group
which so often thinks and writes of itself as 'representative5 and
which, by most foreign observers, is treated as 'typical* — is in-
adequately represented in this study. Without casting any aspersions
on the thousands of my collaborators, one can say that this book is
not to any appreciable extent about Ladies and Gentlemen.

Few of the people who called themselves upper middle class
added any comments or explanations to this ascription.

The other group which is certainly under-represented, with 1 per
cent of each sex, is the lower working class. Whereas probably the

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

major reason for the under-representation of the upper middle and
upper classes is that relatively few of them read the People, I would
guess that the reasons for the under-representation of the lower
working class were primarily the fact that filling in the questionnaire
put too heavy a strain on their literacy, and possibly a suspicion
about other people's inquisitiveness.

The actual phrase lower working class' is used by few respondents.
Mostly they use descriptive phrases : Very modest*, 'Fairly respectable
working class', 'very ordinary', 'working class, humble, respectable',
'unskilled worker' and so on. Only occasionally is it doubtful
whether the respondent should be put in the lower working or
working class. The great majority of those in this category had the
minimum education and are the poorest section of the community.

Although the top and bottom of the social hierarchy are repre-
sented by so few respondents (relatively speaking) their responses
are significant in many ways. In many respects they differ markedly
from the rest of the population.

One-tenth of our sample place themselves in the two intermediate
classes between the large blocks of middle and working class.
Seven per cent call themselves lower middle class and 3 per cent
upper working class. These finer distinctions in class position are
made more by men than by women (8 per cent of the men and 6 per
cent of the women call themselves lower middle class, and 4 per cent
of the men and 3 per cent of the women call themselves upper working
class), and more by people over 25 than by younger people. Both
these groups are relatively prosperous, and many of them have had
some secondary schooling (62 per cent in the case of the lower middle
class, and 46 per cent in the case of the upper working class). Their
self-classification seems objectively justified in the great majority of
cases. They are very evenly distributed throughout the country.

Nearly all the lower middle class think the term self-explanatory
without further elaboration; but there are relatively few of the upper
working class who do not justify their claim to this status. 'Upper
working classliving comfortably within our means* ; *a little above aver-
age working class' ; 'working class with a desperate urge to better my-
self'; 'of the labouring class with lower middle aspirations' and so on.

Most of the English recognize and accept their class position,
occasionally defining it with humour and good humour. 'We are
working class — the sort that call the mid-day meal "dinner",' writes
a 32-year-old married woman from Bournemouth. 'One of the
people, an ordinary everyday worker'; 'Usually known as working
class or manual workers'; 'Average lower paid worker, who you

PEOPLE AND HOMES

would see at any football match or at the local'; 'I am a typical
working class man, I go to work in the morning and come home at
night and I take my £5 10s. a week, and that's how it goes on week
after week, just like anyone else'; 'middle class, professional, though
wage earner'; 'Middle, middle class'; 'Middle class (something not
quite human— a school teacher)'.

This good-humoured acceptance is general; but there is a small
group which views their class position as political rather than social,
and they are inclined to make remarks with a slightly bitter under-
tone. My impression is that these bitter remarks come somewhat
more often from the middle class; the 'lower than vermin' epithet
produced by a Labour party politician is repeated quite frequently,
and also such modifications as 'extinct middle class', 'former middle
class* and so on. The politically minded working class are more
truculent: 'Exploited Producer of Wealth Just a So-called Common
Worker' ; '£6 a week working class that all other classes of the country
depend upon to make this country's fortune' ; 'Hard Working Class' ;
'Working Class and Proud of It'; 'Working class— the only portion
of the population which contributes anything' ; and the like. When
people define their class position in this way it tends to colour their
views on every sort of subject. Thus a North country 'militant
working class' man says of the police 'I hate the police and every-
thing they stand for, which is, among others, the subjugation of the
working classes, so that the idle rich may live their worthless lives
in comfort and security'; and a middle-aged 'vermin middle-class'
man from Egham says of his neighbours CI dislike to have to put it
so forthrightly, but as they are the labouring class, they and I have
nothing in common.* It is only small groups however who display
such political passion.

As has already been said, current income is no clear indication
of social class; there are some members of each class in each income
group. There is a tendency however towards clusters. More than
three-quarters of the lower working class have family incomes of
under £8 a week, and half have incomes under £5 a week (many of
these are pensioners); half the working class have incomes between
£5 and £8 a week, and another three-tenths between £8 and £12;
the upper working class have two-fifths between £8 and £12 a week
and a third between £5 and £8; they are slightly better off on the
average than the lower middle class, who have a third in the £5 to
£8 a week group and another third in the £8 to £12, almost exactly
the same figures as those for the middle class; the middle class has a
quarter above £12 a week whereas the lower middle has only a fifth;

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

the upper middle have two-fifths above the £12 a week level, and are
much the most prosperous group.

One of my major surprises was the extent to which people were
willing to disclose their incomes. I had expected some of the prudery
or secrecy about money matters which characterized my own family
and that of most of my friends. My experience of the upper middle
and middle class is that almost the last information to be confided
to friend or relative is current income; and that questions on this
subject are more resented than almost any other. With this anti-
cipation in mind, I had purposely framed my question as discreetly
as possible, and had even consciously permitted a certain am-
biguity. People whose family income was precisely £8 or £12 a
week could mark two categories equally correctly; thus £8 a week
could be inserted either in the space marked for £5~£8 or £8-£12,
though I would expect it mostly to be in the latter. I thought however
that if I particularized to shillings and pence — say a category of
£5-£7 19s. lid. — I might excite hostility and suspicion which would
overweigh the greater exactness.

I think these fears were unfounded, and that I could have been
more precise. For less than 2 per cent of the people who wrote in
left the question unanswered, whereas 5 per cent refused to tell their
age; asked the same questions by interviewers 7 per cent refused to
answer, and 3 per cent said they didn't know, both groups predomi-
nantly women. This is one of the many cases where more complete
information was obtained from the anonymous questionnaire.

In England in January 1951 the median family income was just
about £8 a week. In the main sample 52 per cent had incomes below,
46 per cent incomes above, that sum. The figures are almost identical
for the field survey, if the 10 per cent of no answers be distributed
at random; 47 per cent had incomes below, and 43 per cent incomes
above, £8 a week. In more precise figures 10 per cent had incomes
of under £5 a week, 42 per cent £5-£8, 29 per cent £8-£12, 10 per
cent £12-£15 and 7 per cent over £15.9

The incomes are randomly distributed as far as the regions are
concerned (there is a little more poverty in the South- West), but
there is a tendency for the poor to live in small towns and villages,
and the well-off to live in the metropolises. The poorest section of
the community are the old, particularly widowed or divorced or
separated women; the best off are the single men under 24, pre-
sumably because in most cases there are at least two earners in the
family; also, as already pointed out, many of my better-off collabor-
ators were connected with a university.

PEOPLE AND HOMES

The English are the most urban people in the world. Only a fifth
of my respondents (21 per cent) lived in towns and villages with
fewer than 10,000 inhabitants; almost exactly the same proportion
lived in metropolises, London, Birmingham and their conurbations
(22 per cent). The remaining three-fifths are nearly equally divided
between large towns, with between a million and 100,000 inhabitants,
which comprise half the population of the North- West and North-
East and North, and smaller towns with between 100,000 and 10,000
which are evenly distributed throughout the country, except for
London and the South-East10

Although England is so overwhelmingly urban, it seems as though
most English people picture their country as rural ("There'll always
be an England while there's a country lane'); and gardening is far
and away the most popular leisure occupation of English men (to
a lesser extent English women).11 It is presumably to gratify this
passion that the architects of England's cities and suburbs have
covered so much ground with houses in terraces (both sides touching
their neighbours) or semi-detached (only one side touching a neigh-
bour) with a little piece of ground in the front, and a larger piece at
the back, hidden by trellis from passers-by and usually fenced or
hedged. The disadvantages both national (through the destruction of
much potentially valuable farm land) and individual (through the
greatly added expenses of heating and keeping in repair such small,
and often shoddily built, dwellings) are presumably thought to be
no excessive price to pay for a piece of land of one's own.

Two-thirds of the population of England live in semi-detached or
terraced houses; in the two Northern regions this figure reaches four-
fifths.12 The total figures may even be slightly higher; the question-
naire offered a choice of eight types of dwelling and a further rubric
'other — please specify' ; quite a number of the 7 per cent who filled
in this section specified precisely 'corner house in a terraced row*.

Ten per cent of the population live in detached houses, chiefly
from the smaller towns and villages- of the two southern regions;
this is one of the instances where the richest and poorest resemble
one another more than either resemble the intermediate grades.
Though a cottage and mansion differ in many ways, they both stand
by themselves. In the middle ranges of income 9 per cent live in
detached houses; on the highest level 18 per cent, and on the lowest
13 per cent do so.

Nineteen per cent of the population do not have a complete house
to themselves. Five per cent live in each of the three following
categories: self-contained flat or maisonnette in a converted house,

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

unfurnished rooms (these particularly the lower working class)
and furnished rooms; 3 per cent live in flats in a block of flats
(particularly in London) and 1 per cent in hotels or boarding
houses. This fifth of the population, as will be shown, is untypical
and unfortunate in many ways besides being deprived of the oppor-
tunity of working a garden.

Once English people have got a house they tend to stay in it; this
is probably one of the biggest contrasts between the living habits of
the English and the Americans. Even with the relatively young group
of the main sample, nearly a third had lived at the same address
for between 10 and 20 years and 10 per cent even longer. In the
field survey just on half the population had lived at the same address
for more than 10 years.13 Nearly a third of the main sample have
been in the same address for 2 years or less; these are predominantly
young married (or divorced) people under 34; 15 per cent have lived
in the same place between 2 and 4 years, and 18 per cent between
4 and 10; despite the turmoil of war and the destruction of the blitz
considerably less than half the population has changed its residence
since the end of hostilities. Particularly in the Northern regions, it
would appear, it is only the exceptional who move house after
marriage. Men move a little more than women.14

Fifty-five per cent of the main sample (and 56 per cent of the field
survey) have children; and, in the greater number of cases, the young
children live with their parents; though there are a few unfortunate
cases where housing difficulties have broken up the family. For
example, a woman in Staffordshire says she 'lives in a workshop
with two of the children in a home, three with my mother-in-law,
and one in digs.'

People are children as well as parents; in the main sample the
fathers of half of them, and the mothers of two-thirds were alive,
when they filled the questionnaire. I asked those who had living
parents whether their fathers and mothers lived in the same house or
the same town as they did, or no.

Two out of five people with living parents lived in the same house
as their father and mother; these were mostly the young, the unmar-
ried, divorced, or separated, and the better off. However 11 per
cent of the married couples whose fathers were living and 12 per cent
whose mothers were living shared a house with these older parents.
Roughly one household in twenty has a resident father- or mother-
in-law.

Nearly half the parents of adult children who do not share a
home with them live in the same town; a little more than half live

PEOPLE AND HOMES

in a different community. This is the picture for the country as a
whole; but the distribution is by no means even. In the two Northern
regions, particularly in the North- West, in large towns of between a
million and 100,000 inhabitants, in the working and lower working
classes nearly two-thirds of the population live in the same town as
their parents; in the two Southern regions, particularly in the South-
West, in the small towns and villages, in the upper middle class
and with people with weekly incomes of over £12, barely a third do
so. The figures are similar for both parents, and almost certainly
mirror a real regional difference; whereas the doubling up of house-
holds is evenly distributed over the whole country, geographical,
as contrasted with residential, separation varies greatly with regions
and social class.15

These figures are significant. A great deal is spoken and written
about the contemporary break-up of the family, which is meant to
include more than the break-up of marriage; and these figures show
that, though this is overwhelmingly true for the better-off and the
members of the upper middle classes, to which so many of the writers
and speakers belong, and of the small towns and villages in the
Southern hah0 of the country, in which so many of them live, it is
not true of the urban working classes in the manufacturing towns of
the Midlands and North to anything like the same extent.

When it comes to other blood relatives — brothers, sisters, married
children— the regional differences are much less marked, though the
class difference is still significant. Just a quarter of the population
said that they had such relatives living near them, within, say, five
minutes walk. There is only a difference of 3 or 4 per cent between
the different regions and town-sizes; but 28 per cent of the working
class answer in the affirmative, in contrast to 18 per cent of the upper
middle and lower middle classes.16

The answers to the question 'Do your parents-in-law, brothers-
in-law or sisters-in-law live near you — within, say, 5 minutes walk?*
produced some interesting information; it demonstrated the hitherto
undocumented fact that there is a marked tendency towards matri-
locality in the English working class. Matrilocality is a technical
term from social anthropology signifying that the man at marriage
moves to his wife's community, so that the children are brought up
among their mother's kinfolk; when the wife moves to the husband's
community the term is patrilocality. With complete patrilocal
residence all the women would live near their in-laws and none of
the men; and the reverse with matrilocality. We do not have com-
plete matrilocality, but 28 per cent of the men live near their in-laws

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

and only 19 per cent of the women, a difference of real significance.
Twenty-nine per cent of the working class in contrast with 1 8 per
cent of the middle class, 28 per cent of those with incomes of £5-£8
a week, contrasted with 17 per cent of those with incomes over £15
and under £5 a week do so. This pattern is commonest in the Mid-
lands and Northern regions and least common in the South.
Considerably more men live near their wives' relatives than near
their own parents.17

I thought further insight might be gained if these questions about
living near blood relations and relations by marriage were correlated
with the amount of time people had lived in the same address. The
figures are quite conclusive. Nearly a third of the people who have
lived in the same house ten years or more have brothers, sisters or
married children living near them; barely half that number do so who
have lived in their house a year or less. When it comes to living near
in-laws, the figures vary comparatively little with length of residence,
with the peak with those who have lived less than ten years in the
same address. This confirms the hypothesis that, when English men
do move house (and most presumably do so at marriage) they tend
to move away from their own family and near to that of their wives.

Social anthropologists distinguish between the nuclear family — a
husband and wife and their children — and the extended family,
which are the other relationships by blood and marriage which are
socially recognized. In most primitive societies the extended family
is of major importance in providing help and support for the indi-
vidual, and these functions are of some importance in all societies.
By practically every criterion, the break-up of the extended family
has proceeded much further in the South of England than in the
Midlands and the North. Kinsfolk are most scattered in the South-
West, even more than in London; they are most closely knit in
Lancashire and the other North- Western counties. In the small
towns and villages of rural England the break-up has gone furthest;
the very poor, with incomes under £5 a week, and the prosperous,
with incomes over £12 a week, both tend to live isolated. In the
middle income groups, in medium-sized towns (under a million
population) and among the working class such isolation is much less
common.

The assumption about the loneliness of the English, which I had
in mind when I framed the questions, has therefore to be modified
at least in part. People in the working class outside the Southern
counties of England do tend to live near kinsfolk; it is the people in
the South, especially the middle class — the regions and class with

PEOPLE AND HOMES

Figure I
Question 10 by Question 17

10, How long have you lived at your present address?
17. Do any of your brothers or sisters or married children live near you-
five minutes walk ?

-within, say*

Question 17

Question 10

Yes

No answer

Total

Under 6 months

100

7-12 months

100

1.1-2 years

100

2.1-4 years

100

4.1-10 years

100

10.1-20 years

100

20,1-30 years

100

30.1 years and over

100

No answer

100

Total

100

Question 10 by Question 18

Figure II

10. How long have you lived at your present address?

18, Do your parents-in-law, brothers-in-law, or sisters-in-law live near you— within
say, five minutes walk?

Question 18

Question 10

Yes

No answer

Total

Under 6 months

100

7-12 months

100

1.1-2 years

100

2.1-4 years

100

4.1-10 years

100

10.1-20 years

100

20.1-30 years

100

30.1 years and over

100

No answer

100

Total

100

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

which I am most familiar — who are most often separated from their
kith and kin and therefore depend on friends and neighbours for
help and companionship.

NOTES TO CHAPTER THREE

1. In the questionnaire the question on social class followed immediately after
the question *How old were you when you finished full-time school?* and a certain
number, overwhelmingly the young under 18, answered the question as if the word
'class' referred to their class at school, and named the highest school class they had
reached.

The figures of self-ascription by class are remarkably similar in the main sample
and the field survey, except that the members of the middle class interviewed made
fewer distinctions than those who wrote in. The actual percentages are:

Main Sample Field Survey
percentage percentage

Upper middle 2 1

Middle 28 35

Lower middle 7 4

Upper working 3 —

Working 50 47

Lower working 1 1

*Any class* 1 2

Miscellaneous 3 1

Don't know 4 9

No answer 1 —

The British Institute of Public Opinion has asked on three occasions since 1945
(March 1948, November 1949, and June 1952): 'If you had to say which social class
you belonged to, which would you say?' These questions were asked of a sample
from the whole of Britain, and not merely of England. No distinctions were recorded
within the working class. The pattern of answers during these five years remained
remarkably constant, with variations of at most 1 per cent. The survey nearest in time
to mine is that of November 1949, which gave the following figures:

Total Men Women

o/ o/ o/

/o /o /o

Upper class 2 2 1

Upper middle 667

Middle 27 26 28

Lower middle 15 15 15

Working 45 47 43

Don't know 546

Although the contrasts are less, it is worth noting that compared with men, more
women put themselves in the middle class and fewer in the working class; more women
are uncertain of their class position.

2. Seventy-six per cent of the working class and 44 per cent of the middle class
finished full-time schooling at the age of 14 or earlier.

3. A considerable number of articles in The British Journal of Sociology deal with
the relationship between occupations and social class. Particularly relevant are; Social
Grading of Occupations > by John Hall and D. Caradog Jones (March 1950) ; Social Class
of Cambridge Alumni, by Hester Jenkins and D. Caradog Jones (June 1950); Prestige
of Occupations, by A. F. Davies (June 1952).

4. See the numerous publications by Professor Lloyd Warner and his associates,
especially the Yankee City series and Structure of American Life (Edinburgh University
Press, 1952).

PEOPLE AND HOMES

5. The New Statesman and Nation, the organ of the left-wing intelligentsia, runs a
feature entitled This England' which consists of short excerpts from the Press which
can make its readers feel superior or amused. A part of the editorial blurb for my
introductory article in the People was reprinted under this rubric; besides, presumably,
amusing the many, it induced a few readers to send for the questionnaire. Many of
my higher educated and upper middle class respondents were recruited from this
source, and from the students in the sociology and psychology departments of a
number of the universities.

6. The figures are paralleled for the field survey, except that there the widowed and
married are not listed separately. Thirty-three per cent of the married claim middle
class status, compared with 42 per cent of the single.

7. The actual figures of self-ascription of class by sex is as follows :

Main Sample Field Survey

Men Women Men Women

o/ o/ o/ o/

/o /o /Q /o

Upper middle 22 10

Middle 21 33 30 40

Lower middle 86 43

Upper working 43 10

Working 53 46 54 40

Lower working 11 11

'Any class' 11 31

Miscellaneous 43 13

Don't know 43 5 12

No answer 22 x x

It is worth noting the large number of women in the field survey who say they 'don't
know.*

8. The following figures, derived from the Census returns of the United Kingdom
(not England alone), were supplied through the Ministry of Education, by the courtesy
of Ben S. Morris, Esq., of the National Foundation for Educational Research. Of the
Occupied Males, 13-6 per cent continued education beyond the age of 16, and of these
2-25 per cent continued beyond the age of 20; of the occupied females (excluding those
who had already married or retired), 17-3 per cent continued education beyond the
age of 16, and of these 2-85 per cent continued education beyond the age of 20.

The sample is not the same as mine, for it includes Scotland (with its marked em-
phasis on education), Wales and Northern Ireland as well as England. It does appear
to confirm the findings of my survey that women tend to have more secondary educa-
tion than men, a difference of just under 4 per cent for all education over 16. For the
same amount of education my figures show a difference of 5 per cent; 14 per cent of
my women respondents and 9 per cent of my male respondents finished full-time
education after 16.

9. For the field survey see Chapter One, footnote (9).

10. For comparison with the field survey, see Chapter One, footnote (9).

11. See Patterns of English Life (Hulton Press, Ltd., 1950).

12. It is remarkable that if these two types of houses are taken together the main
sample and the field survey practically coincide, 67 per cent for the main sample, 68
for the field survey. Separated however there is quite a discrepancy; the main sample
has 36 per cent living in semi-detached houses, the field survey 26; for terraced houses
the main survey has 31, the field survey 42 per cent. It seems at least possible that this
is an artifact of the interviewing situation; that it is easier to find the type of person
the interviewer needs in a terrace than in more widely separated houses. The same
principle may account for the other major discrepancy in the two groups; the main
survey has 5 per cent living in flats (in a block of flats) and 5 per cent in unfurnished
rooms; the field survey has 2 per cent of the former and 1 per cent of the latter. These

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

people would presumably be the most difficult to reach for a personal interview; but
it is also possible that they are slightly over-represented in the main sample. These
types of dwelling are much used by the widowed, divorced or separated ; and it may
be that these lonely people took special interest in filling up the questionnaire. For
all other types of dwelling the figures in the main sample and the field survey are
either identical, or differ only by 1 per cent.

13. That this difference between the main sample and the field survey is entirely
an artifact of the method of selection (described on p. 9) is demonstrated by the
fact that, if the residences of the single only are compared, the figures are practically
identical. It is the overstressing of young childless married people which swell the
figures in the main sample for those who have lived at the same address for four years
or less.

14. As stated in the previous footnote the differing composition of the field survey
and the main sample make it desirable to separate the answers of the single from those
of the married. The following table gives the percentages of the answers to the question
'How long have you lived at your present address?' from the field survey, the corre-
sponding figures from the mam sample being in brackets and italics.

Period Total Single Married

Under 6 months 7 (9) 8 (61 7 (11)

7-12 months 5 (9) 4 (5) 6 (11)

1.1 to 2 years 7 (11) 7 (7) 7 (12)

2.1 to 4 years 11 (15) 1 (10) 13 (77)

4.1 to 10 years 21 (18) 18 (18) 22 (18)

10.1 to 20 years 32 (27) 38 (39) 28 (23)

20.1 to 30 years 9 (7) II (10) 8 (6)

Over 30 years 7 (3) 6 (4) 8 (2)

15. Further evidence that this is not a statistical artifact can be found if the answers
are analysed by age. If one omits the under 18's, who are mostly still living at home,
and the over 64*s who have few living parents, the positive answers to the question
'If your father (mother) is alive, but not in the same house as you, does your father
live in the same town as you ?' are as follows :

Father Mother

o/ o/

/o /o

18-24 40 43

24-34 43 49

35-44 43 44

45-65 41 44

16. This question was also asked in the field survey with practically identical results.

17. Fewer people questioned in the field survey had in-laws living so near them —
20 per cent of the men and 16 per cent of the women; but the patterns of distribution
are very similar.

CHAPTER FOUR

FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS

ONLY AFTER PEOPLE have lived at the same address for ten years or
more do they consider that their best friends live near them, within
easy ^ walking distance. Probably for most peoples in the world
moving to a new dwelling means moving away from old associations;
but the English appear exceptional in the length of time it takes them
to knit new bonds. During the first four years most of their emotional
ties are elsewhere and their best friends live Tar away'; and it takes a
further six years before friends are concentrated in the near neigh-
bourhood. Since marriage usually entails setting up a new home, it
also tends to remove people from their friends; three times as many
married men and women, particularly the younger people between
25 and 44, say that their friends live far away, compared with those
who say they live near. The young and the old, the single and the
widowed are more likely to have their friends near at hand.

Besides marriage, membership of the small social classes tends to
separate people from their friends. People who consider themselves
upper middle^class, lower middle class and upper working class are
likely to consider their best friends live at some distance from them
to a significantly greater extent than those who consider themselves
middle or working class without qualification.1

People in the big cities, perhaps particularly London, tend to be
separated from their friends (when they have any: some pathetic
creatures wrote across this question 'I have no friends'); but what
is perhaps surprising is that the next loneliest type of community,
judging by this criterion, are the small towns and villages. This is
one more indication2 that the atomization of English life is proceed-
ing from both ends, that both in the country and in the metropolises
most people tend to isolation and loneliness. It is chiefly in the
middle-sized towns, above all in the Northern regions, that English
people find friends among their neighbours. This is especially true
of the people who live in terraced or semi-detached hoxises, that
most congenial type of English home; people in detached houses
are nearly as much separated from their best friends as the people
who live in rooms. Most isolated of all are the guests in hotels and
boarding houses.3

I asked a considerable number of questions about people's relations
with their neighbours, in an attempt to get a picture of the amount of

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

F«gure III
Question 9 by Question 19

9. Would you describe your home as

19. Would you say that your best friends live near you (that is, within walking
distance), a short distance away (say a mile or so), or far away ?

Question 19

Question 9

Near

Short
distance
away

Far
away

Some
in all
three

No
answer

Total

Detached

104

Semi-detached

105

Terraced

104

Self-contained flat in

house

103

Flat in block of flats

103

Unfurnished rooms

102

Furnished rooms

104

Hotel or boarding house

104

Other

105

No answer

107

Total

104

social life in the local group, to compare with the information about
the family and chosen friends. I am accustomed to using the terms
'neighbours' and 'neighbourhood' to mean all the people living
within a fairly small area and I had thought that this meaning was
general. I now consider that I was probably using the terms as a
dweller in the country does; nearly all my respondents are town-
dwellers, and they tended to interpret the terms more narrowly and
precisely; usually they only included the people living in the adjacent
houses, or just opposite to them; or, for people who lived in multiple
dwellings, some or all of the other inhabitants of the same building.

The typical relationship of the English to their neighbours can
probably best be described as distant cordiality. Some two-thirds
know most of their neighbours well enough to speak to; but not
one in 20 know them well enough to drop in on without an invitation ;
and it is very exceptional for neighbours to entertain one another
for a meal or to spend an evening together. Two-thirds of my
respondents pay no formal visits to neighbours in this fashion; and
nearly all the remainder fall between 'a few' and 'hardly any'.

One very curious point emerged in the answers to these questions:
quite consistently people claimed that they knew more neighbours to

FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS

speak to than they knew by sight! It seems possible that this is a
point of sex differentiation, that men will pass a word with their
neighbours but not look at them. Analysing the negative answers,
there is only a difference of 2 per cent between men and women who
say that they know hardly any or no neighbours to speak to, but
one of 7 per cent between men and women who know hardly any or
no neighbours by sight.4

The stereotype of the lack of neighbourliness in metropolises or
big towns is amply confirmed, though it is only a relatively small
group — less than one-sixth — which does not pass a word with the
neighbours even in the biggest towns ; but the regional stereotype
of the greater friendliness of the northern regions, is not similarly
borne out. The people living in London and the South-East have
fewer relations on all levels with their neighbours than the rest
of the country; and it is consistently the (predominantly rural)
South-West which has the highest figures for neighbourly intercourse.
The rest of the country falls between these two extremes, with only
slight variations.

The small groups who do visit their neighbours, either formally
or informally, can be defined with some precision. They are either
at the top or the bottom of the economic scale, with incomes of
under £5 or over £15 a week, who live in detached, semi-detached
or terraced houses which they have inhabited for four years or more.
The patterns of formal entertainment are established relatively
quickly, so that there is little change after four years until you get
to the old-established residents who have lived nearly all their life
in the same house; the amount of informal visiting increases all the
time, though it is still always a minority who drop in. Incidentally,
the stereotype of the woman popping round next door is not borne
out; two-fifths say they know no neighbours well enough to visit
without an invitation, and another fifth know hardly any; parallel
figures for men are very slightly higher.

As far as the English are concerned, easily the most important
factor controlling the amount of contact people have with their
neighbours is the type of dwelling they live in. The differences in
social class, income and region pale into relative insignificance
when compared with house-types.

It is perhaps understandable that the lessees of furnished or un-
furnished rooms, or the inhabitants of hotels or boarding houses
should have little contact with their neighbours, since most of them
are liable to be transients; but this would not necessarily seem to be
the case for people who live in flats. Yet flat-dwellers have little

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Figure IV
Question 9 by Question 20

9. Would you describe your home as
20. Not counting relations and in-laws, do you know neighbours to speak to?

Question 20

Question 9

Most

A few

Hardly
any

None

No
answer

Total

Detached

100

Semi-detached

100

Terraced

100

Self-contained flat in

house

100

Flat in block of flats

100

Unfurnished rooms

100

Furnished rooms

100

Hotel or boarding house

100

Other

100

No answer

100

Total

100

Figure V
Question 9 by Question 22

9. Would you describe your home as ....

22. Not counting relations and in-laws, do you know neighbours to drop in on
without an invitation?

Question 22

Question 9

Most

A few

Hardly
any

None

No
answer

Total

Detached

100

Semi-detached

100

Terraced

100

Self-contained flat in

house

100

Flat in block of flats

100

Unfurnished rooms

100

Furnished rooms

100

Hotel or boarding house

100

Other

100

No answer

100

Total

100

FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS

more contact with their neighbours than do transients; but what is
perhaps suggestive is that people who live in a flat in a block of
flats have more contact with their neighbours than those who live
in a self-contained flat or maisonnette in a converted house. If the
ideal of distant cordiality is correctly phrased, then it would seem
that one's co-lessees in a converted house were too close for the
desired distance to be maintained, since such buildings usually lack
the^ relatively large and impersonal halls, lifts, etc. of buildings
designed for flats ; and therefore the cordiality is sacrificed so that
the distance can be maintained. The old saw claims that an English-
man's home is his castle; as soon as he does not have the building to
himself he is, as it were, dethroned, and no longer appears to feel free
to mix with his neighbours. It must need quite a lot of self-restraint not
to know by sight nor to speak to people who share the same front door.

In ordinary life one keeps the neighbours at a distance: but could
one count on their help in a crisis ? could one rely on them in a pinch ?
This question produced a wide scatter of answers, but it is only a
minority who feel they can rely on their neighbours' help. Eight per
cent felt they could rely on their neighbours entirely, and another
27 per cent to a large extent; 10 per cent felt they could not rely on
their neighbours at all, and 32 per cent only to a small extent. The
remainder— just on a quarter — would not commit themselves, and
said that 'it depends9.

Trust in one's neighbours' helpfulness is greatest among the middle-
aged and elderly who live in small communities, and lowest among
the inhabitants of big cities, between the ages of 35 and 44. The
answers to this question upset a number of my presumptions. There
is no more reliance on neighbours' help in the Northern regions
than there is in London; it is in point of fact the rural South- West
which voices the greatest trust in friendliness. Secondly there is
greater reliance among the well-to-do, the members of the middle
classes, than there is among the poor; the greatest proportion of
negative answers come from those with incomes of under £5 a week,
and who call themselves lower working class. The middle class has
repeated for generations the cliche that it is the poor who help the
poor; the poor themselves seem to doubt it.5

The neighbourhood, the local group, is not only the area of
associations which may be more or less voluntary and more or less
friendly; it is also the area in which many annoyances and disagree-
ments can be focused. In an attempt to find out the nature and extent
of these annoyances and disagreements I asked: 'What do you most
disapprove of about your present neighbours?'

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Five per cent of the population — one in twenty — know nothing
at all about their neighbours ; these are chiefly the younger married
people, up to the age of 44, living in the big metropolises (particularly
London) in the £8 to £12 a week income range; by all indications
this is the most isolated group in the country. The older people and
the somewhat better off are the chief components of the sizable
group — nearly a fifth of the population — who have no complaints
to make about their neighbours ; and among them also are found the
small group (3 per cent) who have positive praise for their neighbours.
*Maybe I am lucky, but I can think of no way of disapproving of
my neighbours' writes a schoolmaster from Cornwall; a young
married man who had moved to Liverpool says *I have no com-
plaints, being a southerner I found all Lancashire people sincere,
understanding and hospitable'; and an upper working class man
from High Wycombe writes 'Neighbours on either side are ideal
(they keep away)'.

The reserve which is so highly commended in High Wycombe is
stigmatized as unfriendliness by many other respondents. The
majority — more than two-thirds of the population — have specific
complaints to make about their neighbours of one kind or another;
and 8 per cent mention unfriendliness, men making this complaint
somewhat more than women, and those under 34 slightly more than
their elders. Except in the first few months in a new home, when it is
presumably not expected that neighbours will be other than distant,
this complaint seems to vary little with length of residence. It is
made somewhat more by those who live in the Southern regions in
medium sized towns, and slightly more by the upper middle, lower
middle and lower working classes than by those who consider
themselves middle or working class without classification.

The incidence of this complaint does appear to bear out the
stereotype that the Northern regions are more friendly than the rest
of the country, and a number of respondents explicitly make this
point. Thus, for example, a 43-year-old working class woman now
living in South Kensington writes that her present neighbours
are:

Fair weather friends, any time you are up against it, trouble illness,

you can count them out. Not like the North.

Similarly, a middle class woman from Ilford:

I myself, am from Lancashire were neighbours are warm and
friendly, moved to Ilford during last war, southern people treat us as
foreigners, and refuse to be friendly no matter how one approaches
them.

FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS

And a 31 -year-old man from Bromley (Kent) who describes him-
self as 'very definitely working class' writes :

On the whole they tend to keep to themselves, I notice this because I
am a northerner (Lanes).

By way of contrast, a 40-year-old skilled workman, now living in
Bradford, complains of:

their unwillingness to accept us as anything but 'foreigners' as we are
from southern England.

The treatment of immigrants from a different county or region as
alien would seem to be fairly widespread. A 35-year-old 'upper
working class' woman writes of her neighbours :

Most of them very 'close' but at the same time 'nosy'. It is rather the
other way round, we are 'foreigners' (Cheshire cats), but are now
accepted by our immediate neighbours. We have been friends all the
time we have lived here, but there's always that sense of restriction —
one can go so far — and no farther. That barrier is now crumbling.

Or from Gloucestershire :

Being a residential district most, if not all, of them are old people
and appear to view strangers with suspicion (typical of Glo'ster!)

A woman from Grantham (Lines) :

They are waiting for me to speak and be friendly, but I am waiting
for them to speak and break the ice.

A few people describe really deplorable lack of charity on the part
of their neighbours. A Southampton seaman says :
Whilst I am away there is no one who is interested in my wife or boy.

A working class married man from Richmond :

Little practical help. My v/ife cannot walk. Lost a limb many years
ago, arthritis in the other leg. Only one neighbour comes in to offer
a helping hand, we manage all right but an offer would be welcome.

A 38-year-old Halifax woman who calls herself middle class :

I disapprove of my next door neighbour because I had no-one at
Baby's birth, husband at work. She said I could knock on the wall and
she would come but added 1 arn't forced to hear you! ! !', which for
me speaks volumes.

Merging into the complaints of unfriendliness, are the complaints
of snobbishness, of the neighbours considering themselves better
class, looking down on the respondents and so on. How for example,

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

should the complaint of a well-educated spinster from Streatham
be classified :

I do not really disapprove of anything, but do not feel I have much
in common, added to which they are given to conceit and pretence.

or that of a working electrician from Essex:

Neighbours on one side always finding fault with everyone, neigh-
bours on other side call me 'Mr.' and not by my Christian name.

Some 6 per cent of the total population complain unequivocally

about their neighbours' snobbishness; the complaints being mostly

voiced by middle-aged, middle-income married people of the

working classes. Fairly typical is a 31 -year-old worker from Crawley :

They speak with an Oxford accent but work, perhaps in a better paid

job, but have to work to live as I do, but they make you think that they

are just that bit above you.

A rather admirable 36-year-old woman from Edgware who said of
her education 'I rarely attended school, my two eldest daughters
taught me to read and write' complains :

I work from 6 a.m. to 4.30 p.m., in a day nursery and have no time

to spare and know my neighbours think they are superior to me.

Somewhat rarer is what one might call reversed snobbishness,
typified by a 24-year-old Nottingham woman, separated from her
husband, who writes :

I do not care for my neighbours at all, because they belong to the
labouring classes, and I have absolutely nothing in common with them.
They are far too apathetic and care only for beer, fish and chips,
football pools and racing. They seem quite content merely to exist and
seem to have no desire to educate themselves or to acquire a better
standard of living.

Similarly, a 35-year-old widow from Reigate who describes herself
as 'extinct middle class' writes :

I do not disapprove of my neighbours at all — I am the square peg —
I disapprove of the system of living that necessitates me living in a
neighbourhood where I have so little in common with others.

The complaints that the neighbours 'lower the neighbourhood*
by their untidiness or unsanitariness, neglect of their houses, their
gardens or their persons, their manners or their morals may some-
times be motivated by class feeling; more often it seems to reflect
deplorable conditions. Four per cent of the population mention such
objections; there are slightly more women than men in this group,
and they tend to be people who have moved fairly recently into the

FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS

neighbourhood they deplore, but otherwise they are very evenly
scattered throughout the country. Thus, a serious married working-
class man from Newcastle-on-Tyne writes :

Upper half of my street, about 8 houses, is occupied by Prostitutes in
furnished rooms and pimps etc. We do not bother them, but their
language in there frequent rows isn't the type I want my son aged three
to repeat.

A 28-year-old married man from Fulham who describes his class
position as 'very modest' (he left school at 15 and has a weekly
income of £8— £12) writes:

This is a near slum neighbourhood, people neglect themselves, their

children and their houses, spending too much time and money in public

houses.

This type of stricture is repeated with a number of variations.

There are two further subjects of complaint which tend to bulk
more heavily in the first years of residence : complaints about noise,
and about failure to control children and pets. Six per cent of the
population complain that their neighbours are noisy and incon-
siderate of other people's rest and quiet, that they play their radios
or rev. their cars at unsuitable times and so on. Men make this point
somewhat more than women, especially the younger, the unmarried,
and the moderately well-off. A young Dorking man speaks for many
when he mentions 'noisy radio, shouted directives to children.'

Five per cent mention the failure to control, or neglect of, children
and animals. It is particularly new residents, in the first months of
their occupation, who complain of the animals; thereafter ill-con-
trolled or neglected children bulk larger; after ten years of residence
in the same house both complaints die down.

The grounds for complaints so far discussed do not necessarily
entail any contact or intercourse with the neighbours objected to.
With the remaining sources of neighbourly ill-feeling this is less
likely to be the case. One can, presumably, resent the neighbours*
inquisitiveness without knowing anything more about them than
that they are inquisitive; but this seems less probable than resentment
about their noisiness, for example.

Thirteen per cent of the population complains of the neighbours'
inquisitiveness; and it seems worth analysing with some minuteness
the categories of people who make this complaint with most emphasis.
It is the young, under the age of 24, the unmarried (followed by the
divorced and separated), the people of medium income living in
the smaller communities and who consider themselves lower middle

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

or lower working class who are particularly liable to think they are
being spied on, and to resent it. The complaint comes somewhat
more frequently from the Northern regions, and least from London
and the South-East, It is a complaint made hardly at all in the first
two years of residence in a house; and it drops out again among
the old inhabitants, who presumably think everybody knows
everything anyhow.

The complaints are made with considerable vehemence and
repetitiveness. Thus, a 27-year-old married middle class woman
from Southport (Lanes) :

I have only lived here two years, but I think my neighbours know

more about me than I do.

and, from the other end of the country, a woman of similar age and
class of Woolacombe (Devon) :

They know more about my affairs, than I do myself, what they don't
know, they make up.

A 50-year-old 'middle class Trades person' from Steyning (Sussex) :
They know more of my business than I know myself, and Her Voice.

A middle aged male artisan from Alsager (Cheshire) :

Their noses are longer than their arms. They cannot live their own
lives for watching and meddling in others. Curtain shakes.

Almost the same words are used by an 1 8-year-old Eccles youth :
They snoop too much, that is to say they are always peeping through
the windows, also they mind other peoples businesses (instead of their
own).

A 16|-year-old Liverpool girl:

Nosiness and keeping you talking when you are in a hurry. Peeping
at people from behind their curtains, noting the time that everyone
gets in at night.

Inquisitiveness would not be so objectionable perhaps, if it did
not lead to gossip; and 13 per cent of the population also object
to this neighbourly habit. It is not altogether the same group who
object to gossip as object to inquisitiveness, though again it is
specially stressed by the young and single. It is a complaint made
somewhat more often by women than by men, and its incidence
increases steadily as income declines. The regions where this com-
plaint bulks highest are the South- West and North-East and North;
it is relatively low in the Midlands. It is mentioned somewhat less
often by people living in the metropolises. As far as length of resi-
dence is concerned, it only starts to become important as a source of

FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS

annoyance after people have spent four years in the same house;
it never dies down. What a 20-year-old Hereford student calls 'the
proverbial "village pump" attitude and conflicts' seems to bedevil
the life of many.

Five per cent of the population, remarkably evenly distributed,
complain specifically that their neighbours are stupid, parochial,
narrow-minded or old-fashioned; and a further 1 per cent object
to their neighbours' religious or political views. The small group
who make these objections are extremely emphatic about them,
and show very little tolerance; they are almost entirely composed
of the older residents, people who have lived in the same house for
at least ten years. It is from this same long-established group that
the complaints about borrowing or cadging arise; it is made by
3 per cent of the population, distributed very evenly, though slightly
concentrated among the married and more prosperous. A rather
humorous worker writes: 'I have run out of tea, sugar etc., can
you let me have some, I will return it later.'

Finally there is the largest group of all, some 14 per cent, who have
quite concrete complaints to make about their neighbours' morals, be-
haviour or character which show the most detailed knowledge. This
knowledgeable group is concentrated among the older inhabitants,
people who have lived at least 10 years in the same house, and who
consider themselves middle class or working class without qualifica-
tions. These specific complaints are made more by the poor than by
the prosperous (complaints going up as income goes down), more
by the inhabitants of small than of larger towns (concentration of
complaints varying inversely with town size) more by the very young
(under 18) and by the middle aged than by the young or old.
Regionally the greatest number come from the South-West, followed
by the Midlands. London and the South-East have the fewest. In
short, the patterns of knowing neighbours, and of knowing some-
thing to their discredit, follow one another fairly closely.

The complaints cover every variety of behaviour and type of
character from the ludicrous to the revolting. Neighbours disregard
the Sabbath or are hypocritical, smoke too much, drink too much,
make too much display, work in their gardens too much, are insincere
or inconsiderate, feckless, extravagant, dishonest, immoral, two-
faced or quarrelsome. The complaints range from the lower middle
class man of Enfield who says :

One has no faith in doctors v/ith a result that his crippled daughter

cannot walk at 18, nor has been trained to do anything for herself. The

other impovishes his home by excession of drinking.

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

to the 30-year-old Wigan woman who complains :

Being endowed with good looks, an unusually good figure — their
inclination to think that I would stop at nothing to get their husbands.

from the Nottingham worker who writes :

One of his is strictly Religious, but swears like a Trooper and talks
about neighbours behind their backs. They would not help a Lame Dog
over a style.

to the pathetic plaint of a 35-year-old policeman:

Having lived in this neighbourhood all my life I disapprove of the
manner in which they talk to me as tho' I am still going to school.

from the 58-year-old Staffordshire villager (who describes himself
as 'fairly respectable working class') who complains :

His undying devotion to his garden, Hail rain or sunshine, and which

prompts my wife to say Mr. So and So is in the garden you could find

something better to do than sit by the fire.

to the young middle class man from Worsley (Lanes) who deplores
that:

When you drop in to see the older folks it is a job to get away and
when you do they go into tears.

Nearly every aspect of neighbourly ill-feeling is illustrated.

There are two small groups within this major category which call
for a little comment. It would seem as though, among the younger
married people, there is some articulate disapproval of, and pity for
the parents of more than two children. Quite a few respondents
write comments similar to the 26-year-old 'ordinary working class'
Londoner:

They seem to regard us as poor things, owing to the fact that there

are children of 2 and 6 respectively and we do not get out to enjoy

ourselves as much as others of our ages.

or the man from Leeds:

Their so called pity because we have 4 children and another due.

Secondly, it would seem as though people going up in the world are
disturbed by the belief in their neighbours' jealousy at their relative
success. It is not possible with the evidence available to say whether
this jealousy actually exists, or is a mildly paranoid projection; in
at least some of the cases, particularly among the group calling
themselves upper working class, the psychological explanation seems

FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS

probable, taking their other answers into account. Thus, a 55-year-old
North-countryman :

Their obvious dislike of our working hard which has resulted in our

owning our own house and car, also their dislike of my having been

elected to two local authorities.

A married woman from Doncaster (Yorks) :

They show they are jealous because I make a success of my finances
and I don't tell them all I am doing.

A Yorkshireman ('Hard Working Class') from Barnsley:

The way they begrudge what we have and the way they spend their
money on drink and gambling and sending the children with bets to the
bookie.

Improving one's position is not without dangers in England.

NOTES TO CHAPTER FOUR

1. The small group of 'lower working class' reverse this trend, and say that their
best friends live near. The poor, with under £5 a week, who are to a certain extent
the same group, make the same claim.

2. See p. 45.

3. I asked a number of questions to try to discover to what extent friendships
formed in the armed services persisted in civil life. Two men out of three, and one
woman out of eight, had been in the services; and these people were asked if they
had seen or written to service friends in the past year (1950), and if so how many,
and whether they had attended a regimental reunion. The analysis of the answers gives
some rather curious results. Briefly, it may be said that associations formed in the
1914-18 war remain important for quite a number of men more than thirty years
after demobilization; for their sons the associations made in the 1939-45 war seem of
much less lasting importance. For the young women on the other hand life in the
auxiliary services meant a major expansion of interest and continuing friendship;
thus nearly a third of the women, but only a seventh of the men who had been in the
services wrote to three or more ex-service friends during the previous year. The attach-
ment to old comrades is particularly strong among the men aged 65 or over, the poor
(presumably pensioners) and the well-to-do; it also corresponds inversely with the
extent people make friends with their neighbours. Thus the metropolises and the
small towns and villages in the Southern regions are the areas in which service links
remain strongest; medium-sized towns in the Northern regions the areas where they
are weakest. The unmarried keep up the connection with ex-service friends more than
twice as often as the married. It would seem that only for the relatively small groups
of elderly men and young women has comradeship in the forces meant a lasting
enrichment of their post-service life.

4. It is possible that an undiscovered semantic point exists here, and that 'knowing
by sight' has a different significance for my respondents to what I intended. It is not
a statistical artifact, nor one derived from the make-up of the questionnaire; the same
questions were asked in the field survey, with a very similar pattern of answers.
Indeed, with one exception, all the answers of the written and field survey are very
similar, and disclose a consistent pattern. People were asked if they knew 'most',
*a few', 'hardly any* or 'no* neighbours, by sight, to speak to, to drop in on without
an invitation, or to visit for a meal or an evening. The interviewed answered 'most*
more and 'a few' less than the writers; but if these two ill-defined groups are added

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

together the figures are practically identical. Tone of voice on the part of the inter-
viewer may have contributed somewhat to this result, but, there is a consistent tend-
ency for people being interviewed to exhibit more friendly feelings than for people
filling in anonymous questionnaires. See Appendix Two.

5. This question was also asked in the Field Survey and the answers contrast some-
what markedly with the mam sample. An eighth of the people interviewed (12 per
cent) refused to commit themselves in any way, much the highest figure of abstentions
on any question m the field survey. More than any other questions asked in the inter-
views, the question 'Do you think you could rely on your neighbours m a pinch?'
suggested the possibility of 'unfriendly' answers; and all the evidence from this study
suggests that, when English people are interviewed, they tend to present themselves
in what they consider a good light, or else refuse to answer. In the field survey there
is a very marked contrast in the answers given by men and by women, which is not
paralleled m the mam sample, and has not, I think, a rational explanation Although
the gross figures are so different, the distribution by age and area are similar in the
two samples. The percentages in the mam survey are given in brackets and italics.

'Do you think you could rely on your neighbours in a pinch v

Total Men Women

Entirely 28 (8) 21 (7) 34 (9)

To a large extent 22 (27) 24 (26) 20 V27)

To a small extent 17 (32) 16(33) 18 (31)

Not at all 15(10) 18 (JO) 12 (9)

It depends 6 (23) 8 (24) 5 (23)

Don't Know and No answer 12 (— ) 13 (— ) 11 (7)

CHAPTER FIVE

GOING OUT

IN THE PECKHAM experiment1 one of the aspects which struck me
as most remarkable was the apparent unwillingness of something
like half the local population to take advantage of this neighbour-
hood amenity; and I thought I would try to find out to what extent
people availed themselves of such facilities as the neighbourhood
provided for gatherings which could, at least potentially, be social.
To stress this aspect I phrased my question: 'Are there places outside
your own homes and the street where you meet neighbours to have
a chat?' and then listed eleven possibilities and left a blank for 'other
(please specify)*. The eleven possibilities which I listed were voluntary
associations (men's club, women's club or women's institute, mixed
club, youth club, political club), church or chapel meeting rooms,
gymnasium and dance hall, sports ground, public house and cafe.
The omnium gatherum of 'other' found members of dramatic
societies, boy scouts and girl guides, territorials, allotment gardeners,
and a number of similar associations and accounted for a quarter
of the women and a sixth of the men. The question seems to have
been understood without ambiguity by those who gave an answer;
and therefore it seems probable (though too much stress can never
be placed on negative evidence) that the quarter of the population
who left this question unfilled take no role in community life,
whether organized or unorganized.

This quarter of the population is heavily concentrated in the
metropolises and big towns, in London and the South-East, followed
by the Midlands and North- West. The married and widowed are
heavily represented, the single much less ; there are four women for
three men in this category. Under twenty-four the solitaries are
relatively few; the highest concentration is in the 25-34 groups.
The poorer are slightly lonelier than the better off, with £8 a week as
the dividing line. With one exception, social class seems to make no
difference: the exception is that those who consider themselves
upper middle or upper working class belong to associations far more
than the rest of the community. After 10 years of residence in the
same house the numbers of the isolated tend to fall slightly. The
people who belong to no associations tend not to know their neigh-
bours informally either.

These negative figures confirm in general the Peckham picture:

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

it is the younger married people, especially the wives,. living in big
towns on small incomes, who are the loneliest members of English
society, without even the faint friendliness of pub or cafe.

The remainder, three-quarters of the population, engage in some
sort of social life, however attenuated; some of the people participate
in a number of social institutions. I asked if people visited them at
all, and also how many times they had gone in the last month (for
most respondents December 1950); and I correlated such participa-
tion with type of house, how long it had been their home, and their
opinions of their neighbours. It is most convenient to deal with each
institution separately and summarily.

One-fifth of the English population visit their church or chapel meet-
ing rooms : a quarter of this number are zealous in their attendance,
going more than once a week; another quarter go weekly. These
regular and zealous visitors are predominantly women, in most
cases poor, often unmarried, and either young or old, rather than
middle aged. Only two-thirds as many men as women use these
meeting rooms; they are used less by the married than by the single,
and least of all by the divorced or separated. They are little used by
the inhabitants of the metropolises ; and visiting increases as town
size decreases. The Western regions, both North-West and South-
West, make more use of these facilities than the rest of the country;
London and the South-East make least. Socially, those who call
themselves working class, without qualification, make markedly less
use of their church or chapel meeting-rooms proportionately than
those of other classes; it seems possible that the poor, ill-educated
women who call themselves 'middle class'2 consider that their church
or chapel going gives them higher status.

The people who use these facilities tend to live in detached or
semi-detached houses which they have inhabited for 10 years or
more. Transients and new-comers, people who live in flats or fur-
nished or unfurnished rooms, or who have lived in the same house
for 4 years or less are very sparsely represented, suggesting that
since the war churches and chapels have failed to get into touch
with new residents. The only other institution which so concentrates
on old inhabitants is, somewhat surprisingly, the youth clubs. It is
perhaps not surprising that the people who are assiduous in their
visits to church or chapel meeting rooms should be particularly
censorious about the moral faults and failings of their neighbours.
Very few of them complain about neighbourly inquisitiveness.

Eleven per cent of the population belongs to some sort of men's
club. Membership, particularly among regular club-goers, rises with

GOING OUT

age and income, with the higher concentration in men aged 45 and
over. Socially the biggest concentration of members is in the upper
working and working classes; there are fewest in the middle class.
Regionally, men's clubs are by a significant figure most popular
in the North-East and North followed by the South- West; London
and the South-East have the fewest. The smaller the community, the
larger the membership of such clubs.

It is uncommon for a man to join a club unless he has lived at
the same address at least 2 years ; and the greater number of members
are old-established residents. The chief complaints that club members
make about their neighbours are their religious and political views
and their habit of borrowing.

In contrast to men's clubs, women who join women's clubs or
women's institutes are likely to do so shortly after settling into their
houses. Membership is chiefly drawn from the middle aged and
elderly, the poor, the married or the widowed. They tend to claim
either middle class status or else to be very confused about their
class position. Membership is predominantly from the smaller com-
munities, and is highest in the rural South- West. Since this is chiefly
(it appears) a phenomenon of country life, it is perhaps not surprising
that nearly all members live in detached or semi-detached houses.
The club or institute is used very intermittently; one-third of the
membership only makes a monthly visit, and less than a quarter go
three times a month. Members of women's clubs are particularly
inclined to be appreciative of their neighbour's good qualities;
when they do complain, it is about the failure of the neighbours to
keep their houses, their persons, or their domestic animals in
approved fashion. Five per cent of the total population belong to
some sort of women's club.

Just twice the number belong to a mixed club, but it is a very
different group of people; the members of mixed clubs are predomi-
nantly young (under 24), predominantly single, (followed by the
divorced and separated) and predominantly well-off. Town-size and
region make very little difference though such membership is lightest
in the North-East and North; the upper middle class and upper
working class are largely represented. Many members go once a
week, a small number more frequently. They find their neighbours
noisy and unsociable. Nearly all members of mixed clubs have lived
in the same house at least 10 years, most of them all their lives.

The concentration of old established residents is even more marked
in the membership of youth clubs ; more than half the total member-
ship has lived in the same house for more than 10 years, most of

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

them all their lives; and these houses are mostly detached or semi-
detached. Newcomers or transients, people living in flats, furnished or
unfurnished rooms, hotels or boarding houses are considerably
under-represented. As far as this evidence goes, youth clubs do not
reach the new arrivals, the young people without friends or connec-
tions in the neighbourhood.

Nearly one in four of the under eighteen's belong to some sort of
a youth club, and one in eight of the 18-24's; the proportion
steadily rises with family income. Regionally the biggest proportion
is in the North-East and North, and the most assiduous members
come from there; there are fewest members in the North- West.
Socially, members of youth clubs tend to place themselves as upper
middle or upper working class; there are proportionately few work-
ing class or lower middle class members, and rather more lower
working class. A fifth of the members are regular weekly visitors,
and another fifth go even more often. Most members of youth clubs
have positive praise for their neighbours; some however complain
of their inquisitiveness and their reserve.

Seven per cent of the population, slightly more men that women,
belong to a political club, though most members make little use of
them; one monthly visit is general; less than a fifth go once a week.
Length of residence makes little difference to membership of a
political club; for the small minority who are interested enough to
join the facilities are immediately available. By nearly all criteria the
politically interested are scattered evenly throughout the population;
there is a small concentration in the medium-sized (100,000-10,000)
towns; but otherwise area, age, marital status and income appear
to make but little difference. There is only one point of contrast,
but that is a marked one : members of a political club tend signifi-
cantly to put themselves in the upper section of their social class;
there is nearly twice the proportion of upper working class to
working class, and a third more upper middle than middle. It suggests
that people who join a political club feel themselves representative of,
or leaders of, their respective social classes. Members of political
clubs are, understandably, very opposed to the political views of
their neighbours; the only other complaint on which they concentrate
is gossip.

If one groups the membership of all clubs and voluntary associa-
tions together, a marked and interesting contrast between the
different regions of England appears. The North-East and North
easily leads in club membership; 46 per cent of the population
belong to some sort of association. Next comes the South- West

GOING OUT

with 44 per cent, followed by the Midlands with 40 per cent; lowest
are the North -West with 36 per cent and London and the South-
East with 33 per cent. This is one of the fairly numerous situations
in which North-East and North- West are strongly contrasted.

To become a member of a club implies to a certain extent an
intention to associate with the other members, and so can be con-
sidered an act with social implications; with the other institutions,
now to be considered, this social implication is less certain. A pub
can be as much a social meeting place as most clubs; or a visitor can
be completely anonymous, slaking his thirst among strangers.
Similar ambiguity attaches to visitors to cafes, sports grounds, or
dance halls.

Two men and one woman in five make at least occasional visits
to public houses. Among the casual visitors, the people who go once
a week or less often, there is not a very marked discrepancy between
men and women visitors — twenty men to thirteen women; but with
the frequent visitors, the 'regulars', there are fifteen men to two
women. Among the 'regulars' there is a high proportion of the
divorced and separated, and slightly more unmarried than married;
they tend to come from the somewhat better-off section of the
community. There is a slight concentration of such 'regulars' in
the South- West and Midlands; but they are fairly evenly scattered
throughout the community except that they are proportionately
somewhat fewer in the metropolises, in the South-East and North-
West, and among the old people. A noticeable factor about these
regular drinkers is that they seem to have very considerable difficulty
in placing themselves in the English social system; to a very marked
extent they answer the question about their class position by saying
that 'they don't believe in classes', or that they don't know or by
incongruous replies. Frequent visits to the pub apparently have a
tendency to confuse status.

Taking all the pub visitors together, both occasional and regulars,
there is some concentration of the lower middle, upper working
and working classes, though the differences are slight. The amount of
visiting increases regularly with income, until £15 a week is reached.
The largest number of pub-goers is found in the Midlands in the
large cities; but there is not much difference between regions or
town-size, except that London and the South-East and the metro-
polises have proportionately somewhat fewer visitors than the rest
of the country. Pub visitors are drawn from all types of dwelling,
but there is a slight tendency to visit pubs more in the earlier years of
residence than after one has lived 10 years in the same house. More

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

than the users of any other type of social institution, pub visitors
say that they do not know their neighbours; such complaints as
they do make emphasize borrowing, and the neglect of children.

Although it is a very different group, as far as age and sex goes,
that visit cafes, they too have a slight tendency to be new-comers
to their houses, to live in all types of dwelling3 and not to know
their neighbours. Cafes are used by 21 per cent of the population,
19 men to 23 women. They are used predominantly by the young
(under 24) and the unmarried, the divorced and separated, and
relatively little by the married and widowed. The richer use cafes
more than the poor, and the upper middle, middle and upper
working classes considerably more than the others.4 Cafes play a
lesser role in metropolises and in London and the South-East
generally (though when people from these areas do use cafes, they
tend to use them with regularity); they are most used in the South-
West and Midlands; the North- West uses them even less than
London.

Three men and one woman in ten visit sports grounds; but for
most people this is only an occasional outing. One in ten go more
often than once a week, and these are predominantly young men
who are probably players; the remainder go once, twice, three or
four times a month in almost equal proportions. People in the North-
East and North are far the keenest on sports, with over a quarter of
the population going to sports grounds; London and the South-
East is the lowest with proportionately a third less ; the rest of the
country is in between. Except for the metropolises, watchers come
from all town sizes equally; and this is one of the few activities in
which length of residence in the same house makes no difference, and
type of dwelling practically none, though flat dwellers are a little
under-represented. With a weekly income of under £8 a week people
apparently can't afford to spend money on sports; above that sum
income makes little difference. Class is much more important;
members of the upper working and working classes are much the
most assiduous visitors; the upper middle classes go least. Sports
fans — presumably, particularly since this was winter, football fans —
make up a very representative cross-section of the English working
class (with a partial exception of the lower working class) ; in income
and habits, in type of residence, in their attitudes towards their
neighbours, the sports watchers do not differ significantly from the
population as a whole.

Very different are the small group — 4 per cent of the men and 2
per cent of the women — who frequent a gymnasium. They are mostly

GOING OUT

young— under 24 — unmarried, prosperous, with slight concentra-
tions in the upper working class and, regionally, in the Midlands.
Most of them are gymnastic enthusiasts, going once a week or more
often. They tend to be long established residents in detached houses.
They are particularly censorious of their neighbours' moral faults,
laziness, gossip, and inability to control their pets. The regular use
of a gymnasium would seem to develop not only the muscles but
also a feeling of moral superiority in the gymnasts.

Nearly a fifth of the population visit dance halls, the majority
being under 24 and unmarried, and women more than men, in the
proportion of five to four. The biggest concentration of dancers
occurs in the big towns with a population of a million to a hundred
thousand, and regionally in the North-West, followed by the Mid-
lands and the North-East and North. There is least dancing in the
metropolises, and in the whole South-Eastern region. Visiting dance
halls is directly correlated with income, the most assiduous visitors
coming from the groups with family incomes of over £12 a week;
but it is even more highly correlated with social class. Those who
put themselves high in their social class — upper middle or upper
working class— go in considerable numbers to dance halls; those
who put themselves low — lower middle or lower working — have
less than two-thirds as many visitors. Only a very small group, and
those mostly under 18, go more than once a week; nearly a quarter
only go once a month and most of the remainder less than once a
week. There is a slight tendency for newcomers to the area to be
visitors to dance halls; once again the dwellers in flats or rooms are
slightly under-represented. Dancers are particularly resentful of
their neighbours' inquisitiveness and gossip; they also complain
that their neighbours are noisy.

This review of the use the English people make of social facilities
could give no indication whether they made use of these facilities
alone, or in the company of other people. In an attempt to find out
the smaller units of association, I asked 'If you wanted to spend a
pleasant evening, what sort of company would you like to spend it
in?' and further 'What sort of company did you have last Saturday
evening?' in an attempt to discover to what extent people achieved
the company they desired. For most of my respondents the Saturday
described would be either January 13th or January 20th, 1951. They
were presented with eight choices: one man, one girl, a foursome
(two couples), a group of men, a group of girls, a mixed group, with
own family, and alone. For the question about the specific Saturday

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

evening, two further categories had to be added: 5 per cent were
working (7 per cent of the men and 3 per cent of the women, very
evenly scattered throughout the population); and 6 per cent were
ill (8 per cent of the women and 4 per cent of the men). These invalids
were concentrated in the North- West, and were predominantly old
and poor; there was apparently a flu epidemic in that area at the
time.

Seven per cent of the population spent the Saturday evening alone;
these solitaries come from every section of the population, but there
is a heavy concentration among the old and poor, the widowed and
divorced. Two per cent of the population would prefer solitude to
any company; many of these are young, unmarried and call them-
selves upper middle class; they may perhaps be students. Some of
the old and poor also choose their own company; and these hermits
are represented in every category.

Eighty-five per cent of the population had some company on the
January Saturday; 97 per cent of the population desires some sort
of company for a pleasant evening.

A quarter of the population prefers the company of their own
family to that of all others, a respectable choice which confirms
previous observations about the relative lack of sociability among
the English. As can be expected, it is the married who make this
choice most frequently, followed by the widowed; it is made relatively
little by the single. Significantly more men than women, in the
proportion of four to three, choose their family's company. Regionally
there are only slight differences; a smaller proportion of people
from the North- West, and a larger proportion from the North-East
and North choose their family; the smaller the township, the more
the company of one's own family is preferred. This preference
increases steadily with age, and to a certain extent decreases with
income; with a family income of over £12 a week alternative
company is largely preferred. The people who call themselves upper
middle or upper working class have less taste for their family's
company than those of other classes.

On the Saturday in January, considerably more people spent the
evening with their own family than would have chosen to do so;
it was the fate of 36 per cent, though the choice of only 25 per cent.
It is above all the young and unmarried and the prosperous who
were unwillingly at home; and there is a marked contrast between
the regions ; in the South-West and South-East (including London)
considerably more people were with their family than in the rest of
the country.

GOING OUT

Second choice — made by a fifth of the population — is for a
'mixed group', a party; 23 per cent of the women and 17 per cent of
the men opt for this type of entertainment. This is markedly a middle
class preference ; the percentage is higher in all three groups of the
middle class, than in any of the working class groups, with upper
middle leading. It is interesting to note that this is one of the fairly
rare cases where response by income and response by social class
differ very noticeably; the response is nearly identical for all income
groups. The taste for parties is slightly higher among the under 18's;
thereafter there is little difference until the age of 65. There is a
slight preference in the bigger towns; and the figures are slightly
lower for the two Western regions.

In January there were fewer parties given than people would have
liked; 14 per cent were actually in a mixed group, compared with
the 20 per cent who would have liked to be. In practice income makes
more difference than it did in choice; the number of party goers
increases regularly with income, and varies relatively little according
to class. People living in the two Southern regions went to parties
less than did the rest of the country.

The limited party of a foursome — two couples — is chosen by
16 per cent, 15 men to 18 women. This seems to be the first choice
of two groups — the under 18's who presumably find it is a cover for
their shyness, and the young married group of 25-34; the married
choose this combination somewhat more than the single. It is
particularly preferred by the more prosperous members of the lower
middle and upper middle classes in the metropolises and big towns.

A relatively small group — only 6 per cent — actually spent their
Saturday evening in this way; but those who did so mostly came from
the groups who prefer this combination, especially the younger
married people.

Sixteen per cent of the population as a whole prefer the company
of one man. Thirty per cent of the women and 5 per cent of the men
make this choice. It is made least by the married, but even here 13
per cent would like it; the same percentage of choice is made by the
25-34 age group, after which the figures rise slightly. It does not
seem an unfair deduction that the older married women sometimes
yearn for an evening out with another man. The poor make this
choice considerably more often than the better off.

Nearly the same proportion — 15 per cent — would prefer to go
out with one girl, a choice made by 25 per cent of the men and 2
per cent of the women; but the distribution is markedly and interest-
ingly different, The highest proportion comes from the unmarried

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

under 24; far fewer married or widowed men would choose the
company of one person of the opposite sex than is the case with
women of similar standing. After the age of 24 the interest in the
company of one girl drops off sharply and continuously; there is no
recrudescence of interest after the age of 35, as there is with women.
The desire for the company of one girl mounts dramatically with
income; twice the number of those with a family income of over £15
a week desire the company of one girl compared with those with a
family income of under £8 a week; this reverses the picture with
women, and suggests that the habit of the man paying all the expen-
ses when a couple go out is almost universal in England. Only the
richer men can contemplate taking a girl out; and for the poorer
girls being taken out by a man is the only possibility of spending a
pleasant evening. There is a curious lack of fit in the class picture;
the middle class women are the most interested in going out with a
man, the upper working and lower working class men most interested
in going out with a girl. Regions and town size do not seem to make
any significant difference.

On the Saturday evening in January fewer people spent the even-
ing in the company of the opposite sex than would have chosen
to do so. Eighteen per cent of the women, and 5 per cent of the men
were out with one man; 14 per cent of the men and 5 per cent of
the women were out with one woman. The economic aspect of what
is, at least potentially, courting behaviour is once more confirmed;
the going out with a girl rises consistently with income, whereas the
poorest girls go out with men as much as their wealthier sisters, and
indeed slightly more than most of them. It is interesting to note that
there is least of this potentially courting behaviour in the South-
West; there is a little more in the North- West than in the other
regions, but the difference is slight.

Nine per cent of the men and (perhaps slightly unexpectedly) 2
per cent of the women would choose a group of men for company;
but no men, and only 2 per cent of women would choose a group of
girls.5 The choice of all-male company is low (3 per cent) in the 18-24
age group; thereafter it rises steadily with age. It is most marked in
the North-East and North, and lowest in the North-West6; otherwise
it seems to be a characteristic of all the other regions and all town-
sizes and income groups. It is lowest in the middle and highest in
the lower working and working classes. So few women choose the
company of a group of other women for an evening's entertainment
that little can be said about the distribution; there is a slight cluster
among the young and poor.

GOING OUT

Six per cent of the men and 1 per cent of the women actually
enjoyed the company of a group of men 'last Saturday'; none of the
men and 2 per cent of the women spent the evening in a group of
women. The distribution is very even, though this pattern is slightly
more common in the Northern regions and the Midlands ; there is
a concentration, for which I can find no explanation, of all-male
groups in the £12-£15 a week income group.7

It does seem worth emphasizing that 14 per cent of English men
prefer the company of their own sex, when given a completely
free choice; only 4 per cent of the women would choose to he with
other women. All the figures seem to bear out the generalization
that in England women are more likely to express heterosexual
interest than are men.8

NOTES TO CHAPTER FIVE

1. Seep. 18.

2. See p. 37.

3. Only with the pub, the caf6, and the sports ground, do the dwellers in flats,
furnished and unfurnished rooms, hotels or boarding houses use the facilities in
proportion to their numbers in the population.

4. It is perhaps relevant to recall that many of my upper middle class respondents
were students, which may account for the apparently high use of caf6s by members
of this class.

5. It seems possible that the emphasis on the time of the day has somewhat falsified
the picture of the amount of pleasure English women take in the company of their
own sex. It appears probable, though I have no material to demonstrate this, that
women enjoy the company of other women during daylight hours, for lunch or tea,
but prefer male company after the sun has set.

6. See page 302.

7. The questions about the company which would be chosen, and the company
actually enjoyed on the Saturday evening were also asked in the field survey. The
contrast between interviews and written questionnaires can most conveniently be
demonstrated in tabular form, the percentage for the written survey being in brackets
and italics.

Would choose Last Saturday

Total Men Women Total Men Women

One man

7 (16}

4 (5)

10 (30)

5 (77)

3 (5)

8 (18)

One girl

7 (75)

12 (25)

2 (2)

4 (10)

6 (14)

3 (5)

A foursome

11 (J6)

10 (75)

11 (18)

3 (6}

3 (7)

2 (5)

Group of men

6 (5)

12 (9)

1 (2)

5 (4)

10 (6)

— (1)

Group of girls

0 (7)

0 (0)

1 (2)

0 (7)

0 (0)

1 (2)

Mixed group

26 (20)

21 (77)

29 (23)

15 (14)

15 (73)

15 (14)

With own family

40 (25)

37 (28)

42 (21)

48 (36)

43 (37)

52 (34)

Alone

3 (2)

3 (3)

3 (2)

8 (7)

6 (6)

10 (9)

Working

—

1 (5)

10 (7)

4 (5)

Was ill

—

2 (6)

2 (4)

2 (S)

No answer

0 (7)

1 CO

1 U)

2 (4)

2 (5)

The most immediately striking contrast between the answers from interviews
conducted by young women, in contrast to anonymous questionnaires, is the great

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

increase in devotion to one's own family, and the great decrease, even in preference,
for the company of a member of the opposite sex This would appear to be an artifact
of the interviewing situation. As has been noted before (see Appendix Two), the
English seem to have a tendency m face-to-face interviews to present themselves as
friendly, domestic, and good neighbours to a much greater extent than they do in
a non-personal situation. The field sample is somewhat older than the main sample;
but if the table is inspected for the choices and reported behaviour of the young and
unmarried the discrepancy is still most striking. I would suggest that the professed
lack of interest in a companion of the opposite sex is an artifact of modesty.

The relative lack of invalids in the field survey is presumably due to the fact that
convalescents were difficult to get at for interviews, whereas many seem to have found
filling-m the questionnaire an agreeable pastime during convalescence. The greater
number of Saturday workers in the field survey seems to result from the selection of
interviewees in Birmingham; the big concentration is in the Midlands and in the
largest cities.

Although there are the marked differences in absolute quantities, the rank order
is the same, and many of the distributions are similar; for example, parties or four-
somes are directly correlated with income; and there is a similar preference from the
poorer girls and the better-off young men for a companion of the opposite sex.

8. I suspected that this preference of English men for the company of their own
sex would be demonstrated, and I devised two further questions which I hoped would
further illuminate this aspect of English character. The questions were not well
designed, and not a very great deal can be learned from the answers

One of these questions read: 'Which of these statements do you agree with: Friend-
ship is more important than love* Love is more important than friendship: Love
and friendship are equally important?' Everybody answered this question, but four-
fifths (79 per cent) chose the answer 'Love and friendship are equally important',
76 per cent of the men and 84 per cent of the women making this choice. Nineteen
per cent of the men and 1 1 per cent of the women thought love more important than
friendship; 7 per cent of the men and 6 percent of the women thought friendship more
important than love. There is one curious regional difference; the South-West depre-
ciates friendship (4 per cent) and appreciates love (20 per cent), whereas the other
regions stay close to the national average. The very young and the very old, the poor,
the upper middle and lower working classes value friendship highly; otherwise the
distribution is very even It is problematical whether members of some other societies
would plump so heavily for the equal importance of love and friendship.

The second question was: 'Do you think a man and a woman can have a real
friendship without sex playing any part?' And the alternative answers given were:
yes; no; don't know. In gross figures 54 per cent said 4yes* (52 per cent men and
55 per cent women); 37 per cent said 'no' (40 per cent men and 35 per cent women);
8 per cent marked 'don't know' (7 per cent men and 9 per cent women) ; 1 per cent
did not answer.

Here again it seems to be the general pattern which is significant, rather than minor
variations. More than half the population think that a cross-sex friendship can be
sexless, which would surely not be echoed in many other societies. If one takes,
somewhat arbitrarily, a difference of 3 per cent from the national average as significant,
then the following groups are particularly prone to believe m the possibility of a
friendship between a man and a woman having no elements of sex m it : the unmarried,
people under 24 and over 65, those with an income of under £5 a week and the lower
working class. Groups which stress the impossibility of a friendship between a man
and a woman without sex playing any part are: the divorced and separated, the
inhabitants of metropolises, people between the ages of 25-44 and the lower middle
class. Uncertainty is most evenly divided, with three exceptions : the under 18's haven't
made up their minds (12 per cent); and very few of the widowed (4 per cent) or the
lower working class (2 per cent) are uncertain. With these few exceptions more than
half the English population expresses belief in the channelling of sexual feelings.

CHAPTER SIX

GROWING UP

SLIGHTLY MORE THAN half the population of England consider that
they themselves were 'exceptionally' shy; two-thirds of the popula-
tion think that it is 'natural for young people to be shy' ; but barely
a quarter of the population consider shyness 'a good thing'. Two-
thirds disagree that shyness is desirable. Four-fifths think they are
less shy than they used to be.

The distribution of these beliefs and attitudes is remarkably
regular and consistent whichever way the population is analysed.
The sexes differ only in that somewhat more men than women
consider shyness a good thing. There is slightly less acceptance of
shyness in the two Western regions; and members of the upper
middle and upper working classes are significantly below the national
average in their beliefs in the naturalness or desirability of shyness,
and in thinking that they themselves were exceptionally shy. These
social groups, and the young — under 24 — are the only groups in
the population of whom less than half think they were exceptionally
shy.

These are surely remarkable figures, especially in their implications.
Stated schematically, the typical English position would appear to
be : Shyness is a natural but undesirable^ condition of youth, from
which many people suffer severely, but which most eventually get
over.

This background of shyness must be kept in mind in considering
the answers to the question 'How old were you when you first
started being really interested in girls ?' (or, in the case of women
respondents, 'in boys?' This was one of the questions which were
phrased differently according to the sex of the respondents). Only
3 per cent of the population did not answer this question; and we
have therefore a picture of the conscious awakening of heterosexual
interest for a sample at least as large as any collected on this subject
in any country, and with a far larger proportion of working class and
lower middle class respondents than have ever been gathered before.
The implications of these answers seem sufficiently interesting for
the table to be analysed in considerable detail.

The gross figures are as follows. No answers were indicated on
the questionnaire, and the figures have been grouped in what seems
the most convenient way.1

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Age of awakening- interest Total Men Women

Before 13 15 14 16

13.1-14 12 12 13

14.1-15 12 11 14

15.1-16 19 18 19

16.1-17 12 12 13

17.1-18 11 12 9

18.1-19 563

19.1-20 452

Over 20.1 574

Not interested 212

No answer 325

The first deduction that can be made from these figures is a
statistical confirmation of the well known fact that women mature
(at least emotionally) earlier than men. Between the ages of 14
and 17, there is a preponderance (in the neighbourhood of 6 per
cent) of girls who are interested in boys over boys interested in
girls. For England, it would seem that mixed groups of adolescents
would be more harmonious if the boys were a year older than the
girls. A second deduction of considerable interest is the difference
between the divorced and separated on the one hand, and the
married on the other, in the age at which interest in the opposite
sex reaches awareness. Among the married, 59 per cent say they were
interested in the opposite sex at 16, but only 43 per cent of those
whose marriages have broken were interested. The figure for the
unmarried is 60 per cent, so that this is almost certainly not a
statistical artifact. This pattern continues consistently. By the age of
17, 72 per cent of those whose marriages have endured were in-
terested in the opposite sex, compared with 58 per cent of the
divorced and separated. A year later, at 18, 85 per cent of the married
were interested in the opposite sex, compared with 69 per cent of
the divorced and separated. On these figures it seems clear that an
English man or woman who is not aware of interest in the opposite
sex by the age of 17 is a rather bad bet for an enduring marriage.

Thirdly, the rate of maturing at least emotionally, if not physically,
seems to vary consistently with town size, with income, and with
social class. The premature, those who are interested before 13, are
heavily concentrated in the metropolises, among the well-to-do;
members of the middle classes, the big towns, and the rural South-
West mature earlier than the rest of the population. With the cate-
gories employed, the age nearest to the median is 16, when 58 per
cent of the population say that their interest has been awakened.
This figure rises to 60 per cent or above for the South- West, towns
with more than 100,000 inhabitants, people with incomes of over

GROWING UP

£8 a week, and members of the upper middle, middle and lower
middle classes. It falls below 56 per cent only among the widowed,
the divorced and separated, the upper working class, and those
with an income of under £5 a week. The contrast between people
of different income levels (ranging from 49 per cent of interest at 16
from those with an income of under £5 a week to over 60 per cent
in the higher levels) suggest that poverty and different nutrition play
a major role in development; but this is partly masked and partly
seconded by differences in class behaviour; the difference in numbers
between all members of the middle classes, and all members of the
working classes (although only a matter of 5 or 6 per cent) is com-
pletely consistent, which would not be the case if income were the
only determinant.

The most marked contrast of all depends on the present age of the
person answering; and this would seem to be susceptible to a number
of explanations, none of which can be checked by the facts at present
available. At the median age of 16, 83 per cent of those under 18
said they were interested in the other sex, 71 per cent of those be-
tween 18 and 24, 59 per cent of those between 25 and 34, 55 per cent
of those between 35 and 44, and 49 per cent of those over the age
of 45. *

It seems possible that the youngsters, especially those under
18, had no adequate criterion for being 'really' interested. This
interpretation is made more likely by the fact that a number of respon-
dents underlined the word 'really', and quite a few made uninvited but
elucidating comments. Thus, a 41-year-old working class man from
Derbyshire replied: '17. 1 must admit I was too shy and did not go
out with one until I was 19.' And a 20-year-old middle class girl
from a Warwickshire village: *I responded to the difference in sex
at the age of about 5. I can remember falling in love at that age.
However, at 20, I still do not feel sufficiently attracted to boys to
become a wife. Possibly about 18 I am not sure.' A couple of young
men added rather facetious comments; a 23-year-old working class
bachelor from Stepney writes: '12 or 13 years, school run out of
Footballs owing to the war'; and a 28-year-old married working
class man from Prudhoe, Northumberland: 'About 16, though the
soccer pitch outwayed them every time.'

Even allowing for the possible confusion among the adolescents
and post-adolescents, there is still the phenomenon that as age
increases so does the recollection of the time of onset of sexual
interest. Does this represent a real historical change or is it merely a
difference in recollection? Did people now over 45 develop their

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

emotions later than those now under that age ? Or is there" a tendency
among English people, as they go towards their physiological decline,
to increase in fantasy the number of years when they were still
'innocent' and 'uninterested in sex* ? It seems at least possible that
both elements are involved. Respondents over 45 who were born at
the beginning of the century or earlier mostly grew up without the
constant stimulation to 'love' and 'romance' which is so incessantly
supplied to their juniors by the films, the radio and television and
the lyrics of popular songs. Consequently, when the impulse was
not particularly strong, there was much less propaganda to induce
the young to attempt to manifest interests which they did not
strongly feel; and the confused notions of 'psychological health' and
the relative undesirability of one-sex groups had no currency. On
the other hand, it does seem likely that the middle aged and elderly
tend to deny their own early sexuality and to establish, even in an
anonymous questionnaire, the picture of the absence of sexual
feelings, as well as experience, before marriage which was, and still
to a great extent remains, the English ideal. The men and women
who place the development of their interest in the other sex after
the age of 19 are predominantly over 45. Apart from the under 18's,
the small group who say that they are 'not interested' in the other
sex are very evenly distributed; quite a number of these volunteered
the statement that they were homosexual.

I asked a question intended to discover whether there was a general
belief in a change in sexual morals over recent years. Unfortunately,
the form of the question was one in which many respondents found
difficulty in following the instruction. They were presented with five
sentences and asked to mark the one which they most agreed with,
and the one they most disagreed with. Very few respondents were
willing to confine themselves to marking only one sentence; so
instead of 100 per cent answers (this is one of the questions which less
than 1 per cent did not answer) we have 184 per cent positive choices
and 123 per cent negative choices. There is no group in the popula-
tion which did not give more answers than were called for; the most
garrulous were the poor, the old, the widowed and the lower working
class.

Fortunately this question was also asked in the field survey, with
the added safeguard that cards were printed with the sentences in
different arrangements, so that there would be little likelihood of
the position of the sentence in the list determining the choice. In
the interviews people could only make one choice; and there is
therefore less chance of obscurity in the resulting pattern. Except

GROWING UP

for one instance, the pattern and distribution in the two surveys
appear very similar.

The sentences offered for agreement or disagreement were:

(i) There is much more immorality than there used to be.

(ii) Human nature hasn't changed, but people are not so narrow-
minded as they used to be.

(iii) It is right and natural for young people to want to make love.

(iv) It's other people's nasty minds which make all the mischief.

(v) People are really more moral today than they were thirty years
ago.

The most approved-of statement is (ii): 'Human nature hasn't
changed, but people are not so narrow-minded as they used to be'.
This is selected by over a third of both groups. In the field survey
second choice goes to (iv) 'It's other people's nasty minds which
make all the mischief,' again with nearly a third; and third choice is
(iii) 'It is right and natural for young people to want to make love'
chosen by a little under a sixth. In the written sample both the order
and comparative weight of these two statements are reversed. Only
one in eight hold that there is much more immorality than there
used to be; and a tiny group — one in 25 — consider that people are
really more moral today than they were thirty years ago.

The disagreements are perhaps even more revealing. Over a third
repudiate the statement that 'People are really more moral than
they were thirty years ago' ; and nearly the same number repudiate
the statement that 'There is much more immorality than there used
to be'. Two-thirds of the population of England deny that there has
been any change in sexual morals. Only small groups rejected the
other sentences; an eighth rejected the importance of censoriousness,
a tenth the decrease in narrow-mindedness, and a twentieth the
naturalness of young people wanting to make love. A tenth did not
answer the negative questions.

To the extent that this survey is reliable, the English people strongly
repudiate the belief, enunciated by so many preachers and writers
in the popular press, that the present generation manifest a licence
and lack of moral standards unprecedented in earlier generations.
Even when the views of the older people are analysed separately, the
same picture appears. They do, it is true, stress the increase in immor-
ality somewhat more than their juniors, but not enough to effect
the rank order of the choices.2

We are of course dealing all the time with statements and not with
behaviour, with what people say and not necessarily with what they
do. It is assumed that there is some relationship between what people

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

say and what they do; and the frankness of so many of the answers
give some grounds for assuming that the discrepancy between ideals
and behaviour is not unduly great. By internal checks the picture is
very consistent; the younger generation — those under 24 — are just
as strict in their views of desirable and undesirable sexual behaviour
as their elders. There seems every reason to believe that the sexual
morals of the English have changed very little in the present century.

NOTES TO CHAPTER SIX

1 . This question was also asked in the field survey, but owing to the rather gross
categories imposed, the answers are only very roughly comparable. They also appear
to be inherently improbable, and indicate that this is one more area in which modesty,
and a desire to present oneself in a light the interviewer will think favourable make
face-to-face interviewing unrewarding with English respondents. The figures with the
categories used are as follows :

Age of awakening interest Men Women

Up to 10 years 2 2

11-13 years 6 5

14-16 years 33 38

17-19 years 34 37

20-22 years 12 10

23-25 years 4 2

26-30 years 3 0

Over 31 years 1 0

Not interested 3 3

No answer 2 3

2. In the very few interviews which Dr. Kinsey administered to the old (Sexual
Behaviour in the Human Male, pp. 226-7, 235-8, 319-35) he also found no evidence
for a change of sexual mores m the interviewees' lifetime.

CHAPTER SEVEN

LOVE

SLIGHTLY MORE THAN three-quarters of the total English population,
and nearly 90 per cent of the married, consider they have been
'really in love'. The meaning of this phrase is far from precise, though
some attempts will be made to elucidate it later; but whatever the
understanding the English give to it, it does represent an important
emotional event in the lives of the greater part of the community.

Being 'really in love' would seem to be an experience of the prime
of life, between 25 and 34. Under the age of 18 barely a quarter of
the population claims this experience; between the ages of 18 and
24 two-thirds do so; between 25 and 34 the figure reaches the maxi-
mum of nearly nine-tenths. Slightly more than half the unmarried
claim this experience, also; a little more than a third do not, and the
rest are undecided.

It is interesting to note that one married person in twenty (with
the widowed, a slightly higher figure) say that they have never been
'really in love' ; the other groups who say that they have not had this
experience in marked excess of the national average are the top and
bottom of the economic and social scales: members of the upper
middle and lower working classes, those with incomes of under £5
and over £15 weekly. There is no appreciable difference between the
different English regions or sizes of towns.

For most people this experience is apparently expected to be
unique. The question 'Do you expect to fall really in love some-
time?' was a clumsy one to put to the total population, though I
would have thought it meaningful for the single. My respondents
did not; nearly a fifth refused to answer (much the highest figure of
refusals); and among the unmarried more than a quarter refused.
Nearly half marked 'don't know*.

A tenth of the married and a fifth of the widowed expect to fall
really in love in the future (presumably for a second time); slightly
more than half the unmarried have a similar expectation. Except for
the very poor, the hope for future falling in love increases steadily
with income; the reverse pattern is equally consistent; the poorer
one is, the less hope one has of a future 'falling in love'. This is one
of the cases where income appears to be a more positive determinant
than social class.

A slight insight into the English conception of love was afforded

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

by the answers to the question: 4Do you think English people fall
in love in the way you see Americans doing it on the films ?' Although
the question is fairly vague, the pattern referred to is not, I think,
unclear. In many American films the principal boy and principal
girl are portrayed as being strangers to one another before the start
of the story; attraction is immediate ('at first sight') followed by a
speedy wooing of persiflage and endearments which leads to marriage
as soon as the obstacles are removed — the chief obstacle being usually
the necessities of the plot. The English are vehemently of the opinion
that this does not represent typical English behaviour; more than
three-quarters say 'no'; a mere 7 per cent say 'yes', and these are
mainly young girls, with a slight concentration in the upper middle
and lower working classes and in the high income groups.1

Some further insight into the pattern of love in England can be
deduced from the replies given by married men and women about
the antedecents to their marriage; for it seems a reasonable deduc-
tion to make that, in the great majority of cases, the people who said
they had 'really been in love' married the person they were in love
with. This supposition is enhanced by the fact that two-thirds of the
married men and a half of the married women answered in the
negative the question whether they had seriously considered marry-
ing another person before becoming engaged to their spouse; just
over a quarter of the men (27 per cent), and slightly under half the
women (44 per cent) had given serious consideration to other
possible partners. Six per cent did not answer.

As the gross figures show, English women are much more likely
than English men to contemplate alternative partners. These women
can be identified somewhat more precisely. They are likely to be
prosperous (family incomes of over £12 a week) members of the
middle classes living in the two Southern regions under the age of
34. Such people are found in all groups, but it is here where the
biggest concentrations occur. Conversely the people, predominantly
men, who marry their first choice are likely to be members of the
working classes (particularly upper working class) with a family
income below £12 a week, and particularly concentrated in the
North- West, though the Midlands and North-East and North are
also slightly above the national average. Such constancy is somewhat
more stressed among the middle-aged and elderly.

The people thus chosen, whether they be first or subsequent
choice, are likely to be acquaintances made in adult life. Only a
very small group — less than 10 per cent — know their future spouses
8 or more years before becoming engaged; the pattern of childhood

LOVE

friends (or, for that matter school-fellows) marrying would appear
to be a rare one in England; where it does occur it is mostly in the
two Northern regions, especially in the North-East and North.
Slightly more than a third (36 per cent) of English people become
engaged after less than a year's acquaintance; just on a quarter
(23 per cent) after less than 2 years; the remaining quarter (28 per
cent) knew their future spouse more than 2 but less than 8 years
before betrothal, with the greater concentration in the shorter periods.

It does look as though there has been a slight change in custom
in recent years; compared with their elders, people under 35 are
much more likely to become engaged in the first year of acquaintance;
this is particularly true of members of the upper middle and middle
classes. People in the Southern counties and in the metropolises are
more likely to marry relative strangers than people from the North.
The figures suggest that there is some truth in the adage 'Marry in
haste and repent at leisure', for 40 per cent of the divorced or
separated got engaged after less than a year's acquaintance, com-
pared with 36 per cent of the married; if the acquaintance has lasted
more than a year, the subsequent marriage is more likely to endure.

I can say little about the length of engagement, for this is one of
the situations2 where thoughtless codification made the figures
practically meaningless. For slightly more than half (56 per cent)
the betrothal period is less than a year; for another fifth (22 per cent)
less than 2 years; for another 12 per cent some period between 2 and
5 years. Some 10 per cent of the population, chiefly the poorer
members of the working classes from the Northern regions do not
have a formal engagement, apparently on account of the expense of
an engagement ring and a formal party.3

The English patterns of love which lead to marriage can be briefly
summarized as follows. A young man meets a young woman,
becomes attracted to her, courts her for between 1 and 2 years, and
then may have an engagement lasting less than a further year. If the
young man is a working lad from the Northern regions his future
wife is likely to be the first girl by whom he was seriously attracted;
if the girl is of the middle classes and from the big cities or the
Southern regions she is more likely to have considered other young
men before allowing herself to become seriously attached. There is
little here of whirlwind romance, or of playing around before
finding Miss or Mr. Right; there is also little of the in-group marriage
of old acquaintances which characterizes some settled communities.
It would seem to steer a middle way between these two extremes.

This is the pattern which leads to marriage; but even in the most

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

sober of communities one would expect that sometimes love doesn't
lead to marriage. When I asked 'Not counting marriage, have you
ever had a real love affair?' I was quite uncertain what kind of
answers I should get; after reading 11,000 questionnaires I think
that the vast majority of the answers were completely frank. Seven
per cent of the population refused to answer this question; these
reticent people were the poor, the elderly and the widowed; the
remainder divided up almost evenly; 43 per cent admitted to a love
affair outside marriage, 3 per cent made qualified answers (not
really — not a real affair); 47 per cent gave an uncompromising No.

Region and town size make remarkably little difference to the
distribution of the answers ; whatever the relationship of the answers
to the facts, the answers seem to represent a true cross-section of
English attitudes. The answers are almost exactly equal for the two
sexes. Marital status makes a greater and expectable difference; the
divorced and separated have the greatest number of admissions
with 58 per cent, followed by the single with 47 per cent; 40 per cent
of the married say that they have had a real love affair outside
marriage, 50 per cent that they have not. The figure for the widowed
is slightly lower than for the married, but there was so much reticence
in this group that it would be risky to make deductions.

Age makes little difference except for the predictable lack of
experience in the under 18's, and the reticence of the over 65's;
there is a climax in the age-groups 25-34, but they are only slightly
more numerous than their juniors and seniors.

Class position and income appear far more decisive; members of
all the middle classes claim to, or admit, more experience than all
the members of the working classes; and economically the big
dividing line is a family income of £12 a week; above that sum more
than half have had some experience outside marriage, below barely
two-fifths, a difference in the neighbourhood of 10 per cent. This is
remarkably consistent with the picture4 already given of the connec-
tion between income and the choice of one member of the opposite
sex as a companion for a pleasant evening.

What did my respondents mean by 'a real love affair'? The
question was vague, and quite purposefully vague; no answer was
indicated and quite a lot of space was provided for any comments
they cared to make. My intention was that the question should
refer to pre-marital or extra-marital sexual relationships and the
detailed answers make it quite clear that the majority of the respon-
dents so understood it. The frankness and detail of the replies can
only be demonstrated by a rather massive series of quotations; but

LOVE

lest these give a misleading impression of the sexual morality of
the English, I should like to emphasize once again that half the
married population of England, men and women alike, state that
they have had no relationship, either before or after marriage, with
any person other than their spouse, and that the numbers are even
greater in the working classes. My personal impression — and it is
backed up by other material to be described subsequently — is that
this is a very close approximation to the truth; and although there
are no extensive figures available comparable to these5 1 very much
doubt whether the study of any other urban population would
produce comparable figures of chastity and fidelity.

A number of respondents have such strict views of sexual morality
that they included the anticipation of marriage under the heading of
*a real love affair outside marriage' ; there is no way of counting in
how many cases this applies; but the amount of promiscuity is
obviously even lower than the gross figures would suggest. The
following answers are typical of many:

A married working class woman from Hornsey:

If by 4reaF you mean illicit — no except with my husband before
marriage.

A prosperous 18-year-old girl from East Croydon:
Yes but with fiance which is really just anticipating marriage.

A 28-year-old lower middle class man from near Manchester:

Does this mean including sexual experience? If so — Yes with my
fiancee.

A working class man from near Nottingham :
When I was courting my present wife.

A 47-year-old Londoner:
Yes, twice and in both cases have married both these ladies.

A 22-year-old professional woman from near Portsmouth:

"Yes, with my ex-fiance (3 years ago); casual 'affaire' under unusual
circumstances recently (was travelling abroad).

With some of these answers, particularly from the younger people,
it is not at all clear what exactly is involved. A 23-year-old single
woman from Herne Bay makes the distinction clearly:

Was unofficially engaged once (to wrong man). If, by 'real' love

affair intimicy is implied then I never had a 'real' love affair. It was the

starry-eyed variety on my part.

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A charming picture of the 'starry-eyed variety' is given: by a 20-
year-old middle class man from Evesham:

"Yes, It happened to me at 9.45 p.m. on January 4th, 51, at a 'dance'.
A lightening of the heart, a feeling of utter joy. It's been that way ever
since. Her name is Gladys, she's a Nurse here.

But one doesn't quite know what to make of the 19-year-old
Leicestershire girl who writes :

I am having one now with marriage next Sept. have been in love
two years.

or of the 23-year-old unmarried working class Yorkshireman :

Yes, the one I am having now and which has reached the stage of
planning for marriage.

Similar ambiguity is found in some of the other replies. For
example, the 24-year-old man from Thorpe-next-Norwich who
writes :

Many times before my marriage I thought I was in love, but now I

realize what I took for love was merely infatuation, probably brought

on by the fact that the girls wanted to experiment in sex affairs as much

as I did.

A lower middle class man, 44-year-old, from a village in Leicester-
shire:

Difficult to say. Seemed like it at the time and then evaporated.

A 42-year-old Middlesex woman:

My very first love affair was and always will be the only real one but
we didn't marry.

A 37-year-old working class man from Christchurch :
Yes, but sex was forbidden by the lady.

An 18-year-old working class lad from Leicester:

An awkward question; people seem to think a boy of 18 cannot
know what love is; For over a year I've been in love with a young girl:
So much in fact that if I could afford it, I would like to marry her."

A 23-year-old miner from County Durham:

I have gone out with charming young ladies for periods ranging from
2 months to 6 months, but I don't think I could class any of them as
real love affairs.

Quite a number make sufficiently explicit distinctions so that
they can be placed in the 'not really' category:

LOVE

A 23-year-old lower middle class man from a village near Great
Yarmouth :

Numerous flirtations and affairs lasting sometimes several weeks.
Never had sexual intercourse.

A 33-year-old married woman from Hove:

Yes, several before marriage but never (physically) went far. I was
too frightened and sex seemed very unromantic.

An unmarried working class girl from Swindon, aged 22:

Yes, twice. One at 18 not very seriously, second time last year when
I went out with a parson (C. of E.) for some considerable time.
After consideration he felt he was called to be celibate. Reason — 'God
first partner second'.

A 25-year-old bachelor from Fulham:

"Yes, with a girl employed by NAAFI during the War. Though when
I realized she was a willing party to sexual Intercourse I stopped seeing
her. (I have never seduced any girl).

In the majority of the answers there is no ambiguity at all. Thus,
a 47-year-old unmarried woman from Hampshire:

Yes, two neither reached actual marriage standard, one only had
two sex relationships."

A 59-year-old married woman from Newton Abbot:

Yes, was considered a fast young lady. I loved a fellow previous to
my husband.

A 21-year-old working class girl:
Yes, with an American when I was sixteen

A miner's wife from Essex:
Yes three years ago with a married German Prisoner of War.

A 19-year-old middle class girl from Manchester:
Yes, I have lived with a Polish man and intend to marry him this year.

A 24-year-old working class girl in Ilfracombe:

Yes, since I came to Ilfracombe with a German who realizing we
were getting serious told me he had no room for marriage in his plans.

A 42-year-old married woman from Enfield:

Yes when I was 27, lasting several years (during a separation from
first husband)

A married woman, 30-year-old, who describes herself as 'ordinary
working class' :

Yes 2 affairs since being married.

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Another woman of the same age from North Kensington who
places herself as 'working class (I think)' and is separated, says
simply:

Yes I am still living with him.

A 24-year-old married woman from Rochdale who describes
herself as 'respectable working class' :

Yes, it ended up with me giving birth to a child. He married someone
else.
A 23-year-old middle class woman from Lincolnshire:

Lived with a doctor for a few weeks. A few hotel weekends with a
medic (Both professions more important than marriage.)

A 37-year-old woman, twice married, from London:
Yes at 17| I had a child before marriage, did not marry the father.

A divorced middle class woman from Southport:

Yes, with the one person with whom I thought I had everything in
common, we would have married but he is too jealous of my children.

A 31 -year-old married woman from London:

Yes, six years ago with a married man. Girls take a chance and nearly
always pay for their experience with a baby, like I did, while the wolf
goes free.

A 38-year-old unmarried working class woman from East Ham :

Depends what you mean by 'love'. ? sexual experience without
affection — yes, once, ? Platonic — yes.

A widow from Weybridge:

This is difficult. I was really in love before meeting my husband. I
loved my husband. Now I'm having an 'affair' but not sure if its love
or loneliness.

An 'average English working class' woman from Devonshire,
unmarried and 23 years old :

Yes, and it is still continuing with my present boy friend who is
awaiting a divorce But although we are very much in love I regret it but
I should never tell my boy friend so.

A 44-year-old woman from Norfolk:

I met two men both of which promised to marry me. Both left me to
face the world alone with two babies.

A 54-year-old married woman from Macclesfield :

I was alone in the world that is why I married. I had my first baby
with my husband before I married him, then he went to war and left
me, so I married him three years later.

LOVE

A trained nurse from a South coast resort:

Lived with a soldier during the war. He was killed before we could
marry.

A 49-year-old married woman from Lincolnshire:

Yes! When I was 19. He married someone else. Nothing else mattered
any more.

A 21-year-old North Country University student:

Yes there was a coloured medical student from a backward country,
who is to be that country's 1st native doctor. We love each other but
his and my parents disapprove of our marrying and for the above reasons
he must return home, where my presence might prejudice his people
against him and indirectly against modern medicine. We decided it was
selfish to put our happiness before the good of his people.

Few of the men's replies are as dramatic or as tragic as a number
of the women's, though the working class man from Stockton-on-
Tees has a sad story:

I am in love at the moment — the moment has lasted four years — but

the lady is the other side of the iron curtain,

A 40-year-old man from Southend says tersely:
Yes, more pleasurable than marriage.

A married miner from Newcastle:

Yes, I once lived with a woman 10 years my senior, of good class and
in a top neighbourhood, where we defied convention and were really
in love. I stiS regret its termination 12 years afterwards.

A 19-year-old youth from Burton-on-Trent:

Yes, with a married woman who has two children, but is separated,
she lives with me now at present address, also quite often with various
people.

A 40-year-old man from Yateley in Hampshire:
Having lived with a single woman for five years, before I was divorced.

A middle class civil servant from Reading:

Yes, several — one before marriage and two affairs at least during my
married life.

A 30-year-old man from Stoke-on-Trent who describes himself as
'average working man who likes to live quietly' :

Yes with the girl who will be my wife as soon as I get a divorce from
my present wife.

A 65-year-old general foreman in a public works in East Anglia:
Yes, after I separated from my first wife, and shall I confess, yes, I
committed bigamy but parted after 14 years.

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 32-year-old skilled craftsman from London:

Yes, I am separated from my wife although I have marked for
marriage. I am actually living with the person concerned.

A 27-year-old married working class man from Wealdstone:

Yes — With a widow in South Africa but absence dulled it after
leaving and meeting someone else.

A 27-year-old working class man from the West Riding of York-
shire:

Yes, on quite a few occasions I think couples appreciate each other
more when they are not married to each other.

There are also a number of more fugitive relations. A 20-year-old
single working class man from Chorley Wood :

Yes, I slept with a girl regularly every weekend for 4 months on the
continent.

A lower middle class man from Cottingham in Yorkshire:
Not a love affair only sexual.

A black-coated worker from Newcastle-on-Tyne :

Not to the extent of intercourse with an English girl. As a soldier
abroad I was 'with' women. I had never been anybody's 'lover' in the
affectionate sense as well as the other sense. Briefly No.

A 23-year-old working class man from East Finchley:
If you mean intercourse, yes, but was not in love with the girl.

A 26-year-old unmarried shop-keeper from Bletchley :

No, not in that sense of an adult relationship with a whole person
(woman).

An unmarried 41-year-old Bournemouth man:
No. Not a LOVE affair I have had women. I usually pay them.

A 33-year-old married man from Leeds :
Not normal love affair.

A 23-year-old working class man from Ipswich:

Yes, but there was no love in it! Happened in Athens 5th May 1945.
It was disappointing and have never ceased to regret it.

A 28-year-old Devonshire man:

Yes (but I have different instincts to the normal man) I am abnormal
— homo.

Only by such a barrage of quotations, which could be multiplied
many times, is it possible to convey the impression of overwhelming

LOVE

honesty and truthfulness which a reading of the questionnaires
produces. I feel convinced that, within the limits of an anonymous
questionnaire, my respondents were being as truthful about them-
selves as they could.

I think it worth calling attention to the frequent appearance
of foreigners as partners in these non-marital sexual relationships.
I would suggest that this is a cross-cultural phenomenon, rather
than a reflection on the sexual habits of most peoples other than the
English. The foreigner is less 'dangerous', less likely to be censorious ;
and foreign techniques of courting and flirtation, with their greater
apparent aggressiveness and confidence, may well be more successful
with the 'exceptionally shy' English than they would be in their own
countries.

NOTES TO CHAPTER SEVEN

1. This question was also asked m the field survey with identical figures for the
answers.

2. See p. 10, note 5.

3. In April 1952, the British Institute of Public Opinion asked a sample from
the whole of Britain 'How long were you engaged ?' with results very close to those
given above. Seven per cent did not have an engagement; 25 per cent one of less than
6 months, 28 per cent 7 months to 1 year, 14 per cent 13 to 18 months, 14 per cent
19 to 24 months, 12 per cent more than 2 years.

4. See Chapter Five, especially pp. 73-4.

5. The sample used by Dr. Kinsey in his Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male is in
no way comparable.

CHAPTER EIGHT

IDEAS ABOUT SEX

MOST ENGLISH PEOPLE'S views on sexual morality are more rigid
than their personal practice; quite a number condemn their own
lapses from their own high standards of complete chastity before
marriage and complete fidelity after: *I did, but I wish I had not' is
a recurring theme.

This does not mean that the English tend to underestimate the
importance of sexual love inside marriage. To the question: 'In
marriage do you think sexual love is: very important; fairly impor-
tant; not very important; not important at all?' 55 per cent answered
'very important' and 36 per cent 'fairly important' ; the small group
of 6 per cent who answer 'not very important' consist predominantly
of the very young, the old and the poor; and the tiny group who say it
is not important at all or don't answer are almost entirely old women.

Men, particularly between the ages of 18 and 34 in the medium
income groups, stress the major importance of sex in marriage;
women, particularly those under 18 and over 45 in the upper middle
and lower middle classes, and also the unmarried, are more likely
to qualify it as 'fairly important' with other components playing a
major role.

Despite the importance that the majority of English people give
to sexual love in marriage, the majority think that both sexes should
approach marriage with no prior sexual experience. Slightly more
than half the population in the case of men, and nearly two-thirds
in the case of women, disapprove of any sexual experience before
marriage. Roughly an eighth say that they do not know. A third of
the population in the case of men, and just under a quarter in the
case of women, are in favour of some sexual experience before
marriage.

In the case of both sexes, men are markedly more in favour of some
pre-marital sexual experience than are women; 40 men to 26 women
approve of a young man having some experience, and 30 men to 14
women approve of a young woman doing so. As will be discussed
at some length later, quite a number of woman support a 'double
standard' of sexual morality in which what is sauce for the gander is
taboo for the goose; men are much more likely to invoke a 'single
standard' in which they will not deny to others what they claim for
themselves.

IDEAS ABOUT SEX

The most numerous advocates for sexual experience before
marriage are the divorced and separated; and many of them advance
their own unhappy stories of ignorance or maladjustment to justify
their choice. The single are slightly, but only slightly, more in favour
of such experience than the married; the widowed are least in favour.

The very young tend to be more severe in their ethical judgments
than their elders, though nearly a quarter of the under 18*s have not
made up their minds ; the height of permissiveness is reached by the
people aged between 25 and 34, but it is only a small difference;
people between the ages of 18 and 24 are just as severe in their
moral notions as people 20 years older. The old people, aged 65 and
over, tend to be very non-committal; they have markedly fewer
advocates for sexual experience before marriage than their juniors.

With one exception, social class makes remarkably little difference
to the views on the desirability or otherwise of experience before
marriage: a far higher proportion of the lower working class are in
favour of sexual experience before marriage than of any other group.
It is only in this group that there is an absolute majority in favour of
pre-marital experience for men; and a third are in favour of it for
women too. There is a folk tradition that in some of the metropolitan
and rural groups of the lower working class marriage normally
follows pregnancy; and it is possible that these figures echo this
alleged practice. The upper middle class have the greatest number
of undecided respondents; it will be remembered that many of this
class were students.

Far more determining than social class is family income. Here
there is a steady and marked increase in permissiveness directly
correlated with the increase in income, ranging, in the case of men,
from 25 per cent in those with incomes of under £5 a week through
35 per cent in the £8-£12 to 42 per cent with incomes of over £15 a
week. Parallel figures for young women are 18 per cent for incomes
under £5, 24 per cent for incomes £8-£12, and 30 per cent for in-
comes of over £15. Here once more we find evidence of the deter-
mining influence of money on the English ideas about and attitudes
towards sex.

In the case of young men, town size makes a marked difference
in the incidence of permissiveness, with 38 per cent in favour in the
metropolises and only 20 per cent in the small towns and villages; the
intermediate size towns, between 1,000,000 and 10,000 inhabitants,
are on the national average. This difference practically disappears
in the case of women, suggesting that the 'double standard' is almost
entirely confined to the inhabitants of London and Birmingham

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

and their conurbations. The Midlands are by a small degree the
most permissive region for both sexes, followed by London and the
South-East; the North-East and North is by a small degree the most
severe region.

My respondents were not only asked for their views, they were
asked to give the reasons why they advocated them: after both
questions appeared the word Why? with adequate space for any
answer they cared to give. The great majority availed themselves
of this opportunity; in the case of young men 13 per cent gave no
ansv/er and a further 2 per cent said they did not know; in the case
of young women 12 per cent were silent and 1 per cent had no opinion.
All the remainder made some sort of answer, though, in the case of
3 per cent for each sex the answer was the non-committal one that it
depended on the people concerned.

People were given no sort of guidance as to the way in which
their answers should be phrased; after a preliminary analysis I
established twenty-six categories into which all the answers fitted
adequately, though some of these had very few respondents. Nine
reasons are advanced why some experience before marriage is
desirable, and sixteen reasons why it is undesirable. It is interesting
to note that, as far as this questionnaire is any guide, English people
appear to be more prolific in arguments against a given course of
action than in arguments in favour of it.

Fifty-two per cent of the population, it will be remembered, are
against any sexual experience for young men before marriage and
63 per cent against any experience for young women; the following
are the reasons advanced for this judgment:1

Percentage Percentage
for young- for young
Reason given men women

(i) Marriage should be a new experience 13 12

(11) Man wants virgin wife 0 9

(lii) Man should be pure because he wants wife to be 6 1

(iv) Against morality 7 5

(v) Against religion 4 4

(vi) Not necessary — Nature teaches 4 5

(vnj People should have self-control 2 2

(via) Unfair to girl 2 1

(ix) Degrades girl 2 8

(A) Danger of pregnancy 2 6

(xi) Danger of V.D. 2 1

(xn) Danger to health or future children 0 1

(xni) People wouldn't marry if they could get it without

doing so 2 1

(xiv) Leads to promiscuity after marriage ] 1

(xv) Husband may bring up later 0 1

(xvi) Danger of invidious comparisons 0 1

IDEAS ABOUT SEX

The following are the nine reasons advanced why some experience
before marriage is desirable ; they apply to 34 per cent of the young
men and 23 per cent of the young women.

Percentage Percentage
jor young for young
Reason given men women

(xvii) To avoid ignorance, maladjustment, etc., on

honeymoon 13 7
(xvin) To make certain marriage not based on physical

glamour 4 3

(xix) To avoid woman's fear or disgust 0 2

(xx) Makes for fidelity after marriage 1 0

(xxi) With future husband or wife only 2 3

(xxn) Not to include intercourse 3 3

(xxm) For good effect on character — makes more mature,

etc. 6 3

(xxiv) For physical or psychological health 2 1

(xxv) It is normal and natural 5 2

Before these reasons are examined in greater detail, the list itself
seems to call for a few comments. What seems to me most note-
worthy is the high seriousness with which the great majority of
English people approach and regard marriage. Whether pre-marital
experience is advocated or reprobated, the effect on the future
marriage is the preponderating consideration. Secondly, the high
valuation put on virginity for both sexes is remarkable and, I should
suspect, specifically English. Thirdly, it is interesting to note that
what might be dubbed the hypochondriacal attitude towards
sexual activity has apparently achieved very little currency. This
hypochondriacal view, derived from assorted popularizations and
vulgarizations of psychology and psychiatry, connects sexual activity
with physical and mental health, so that abstinence becomes, as it
were, a rather more dangerous type of constipation and sexual
activity a kind of prophylaxis. In some other societies, this view
would appear to be very widely held.

The argument (i) that marriage should mean a new experience, a
new 'thrill', that intercourse should be confined to marriage, is one
that is advanced considerably more by women than by men for both
sexes; it is particularly stressed in the lower middle, upper working
and working classes, and is mentioned relatively little by the lower
working class. It is an argument whose use decreases consistently
with the increase in income, and is relatively little advanced by people
with incomes of over £12 a week. In the case of young men the
rural South-West finds this argument particularly cogent; and it is
advanced from this region too slightly more in the case of young

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

women than elsewhere. The replies advancing this view vary relatively
little; the same form of words recur with great regularity.

The high evaluation of virginity in women (reason ii) is advanced
slightly more by men than women, and finds some concentration
in the middle income groups, and the upper working and working
class; the lower working class advance this relatively little. A great
number of synonyms are used for this desirable state, many of them
metaphors from merchandizing — 'new', 'not second hand' 'not
shop-soiled' and so on. The converse, that a man should be pure
because he wants his wife to be a virgin (reason iii) has very similar
distribution for income and social class, with the exception of the
well-off and the upper middle class, who advance it even less than
the lower working class. Women advance this argument slightly
more than men, but it has its relatively numerous advocates in
both sexes. Thus, a 20-year-old middle class man from North
London :

Some sexual experience may be necessary and is useful but I, when I

marry want a pure girl, so the least I can do is to be the same myself.

A 23-year-old bachelor from Stockton-on-Tees :

Why should he? What good can it possibly do? If I ever marry, 1
would like my wife to be a virgin — is it fair to expect this if I haven't
been chaste myself?

A 41 -year-old married working class man from East London:

From my own experience, I'm glad I only had mild petting flirtations.
Which I'm not ashamed to tell my wife.

A 42-year-old working class man from Sutton-in-Ashfield :

I can only answer this. It was a joy on my wedding night to know
this was my first experience.

A 38-year-old working class man from Penrith:

Because I married a virgin as I always hoped I should, that is why
I never had sexual intercourse before marriage.

A 28-year-old working class married man from Prudhoe, Northum-
berland:

He enjoys his sexual experiences to the full with his wife if he is still
a virgin and he will never wish to wander from her. Variety may be the
spice of life but it can be fatal in this instance. Secondly it can also be
fatal as regards V.D. I was at sea at the age of 17 yrs and have been in
all the 'spots' and had lots of chances yet I remained a virgin & so
bought no 'spots',

IDEAS ABOUT SEX

A 24-year-old bachelor from South- West London :

It's my belief that a man should be content to wait. I personally
would feel shame for myself, and a slight contempt for the girl, (if it
happened before we married.)

A 27-year-old married working class man from Dudley:

He should keep himself to himself until he gets married. Should not
like to think some man could point out my wife.

A 25-year-old married working class man from Dartford;
If he has ideas of finding a virgin he should do likewise.

A 19-year-old middle class bachelor from Liverpool:

Every man expects to marry an untouched woman therefore should
not have any sexual exp. himself. I think all women should be married
in white and can't do so if she has had sexual exp. with men.

A 35-year-old labourer from Huddersfield:

A man likes t6 be first and marry a virgin. I did. I learned my sex
experience the dirty way. In the mills, My father died when I was ten."

A 27-year-old married woman from Bishops Waltham:

Men of today expect the best when they marry so should be prepared
to give the same.

A 50-year-old married woman from Croydon :

In my opinion my husband and I were 18£ years of age and we fell
madly in love and having no other experience our marriage has lasted.

A 29-year-old working class wife from Birmingham:

Should imagine no decent man would ever regain his self-respect.
May I say that though sorely tempted during engagement / never did
and have never regretted it.'*

A 31 -year-old married man from Streatham:

I did, but I wish that I had not, because I think this experience should
only be had at the peak of a love match, namely a honeymoon.

A 45-year-old working class man from Southend-on-Sea:

I did have that experience and regretted it, one loses self-respect and
also respect for the girl.

A 21 -year-old bachelor from Lincolnshire:

Would not like my future wife to have had sexual experience with
other persons prior to our marriage. Matter of principle also.

A 23-year-old working class bachelor from Tilbury:

I think it is wrong for anybody to gain experience at the expense of
somebody else. I should hate to think somebody had tried married life
out on my wife to be.

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Besides the arguments about the intrinsic value of virginity there
are also appeals to the rules of morality and ethics and mistaken
views of common law (reason iv); and, for a small group, an appeal
to the prohibitions of religion (reason v). The argument from ethics
is advanced much more by women than by men, and is particularly
favoured in the rural South- West; it is little stressed by the upper
and lower working classes. In its application to women, the married
stress it more than the single, and the older more than the young.
The appeal to religious sanctions is advanced nearly equally by both
sexes, but chiefly by the elderly and by members of the lower middle
class ; it is hardly used at all by members of the upper middle or
lower working classes.

An interesting point is that the appeal to religious principles is
often advanced by people whose practice would appear to be
agnostic; thus a 42-year-old married man from Enfield who says
flatly 'Sexual experience before marriage is not Christian' practically
never goes to Church or prays, nor does he believe in a future life.
In similar case is a young single woman from near Portsmouth who
says 'It is against the law of the Country and the Church and leads
to moral degeneration of the community.'

A middle class married woman of 39 from Chippenham in
Wiltshire:

Sex should be regarded as sacred by both sexes. An affair before
marriage could lead to one after marriage, [for young women ?] Again
for sacred reasons. A girl seldom goes 'scott free' and an easy woman
does not usually mean she makes a good wife and mother. Pre-maritial
sexual experiences leaves one with a tainted mind and guilty conscience.

A 29-year-old married middle class woman from North London:
Promiscuity in either sex can never be right, in any case, sex is not
always 'all it is cracked up to be'.

A twice-married 47-year-old London man:

If a man really loves a Lady, he doesn't necessarily or shouldn't expect
sexual experience, for my part it wouldn't worry me if I never did any
more. I know I am 47 yrs. now but it never has worried me much any-
way, [for young women?] I say, again, if a couple really love one
another that shouldn't worry them, if one of the couple says No, then
the other shouldn't ask or expect it. Again for my part, I've honestly
never had or expected it before marriage and wouldn't lower myself to
ask for it, from a Lady.

The belief that experience is unnecessary, because 'nature teaches'
(reason vi) is one particularly favoured by the upper middle class

100

IDEAS ABOUT SEX

and completely rejected by the lower working class. Otherwise it
finds its advocates in nearly every category, approximately equally.
Thus, a 39-year-old married working class man from Bradford:

Sex is an instinct which everyone is blessed (or cursed) with therefore
it does not need a 'tryout'.

The appeal to self-control (reason vii) is in many ways similar
to the confidence 'in nature, and to the appeal to ethics; the actual
phrasing is different to the extent that it does imply that there are
some emotions to control; it is used somewhat more by the middle
aged and by the well-off. A typical statement is that of a 36-year-old
working class married woman from Sendon, Derby: 'He should
respect women and curb his desires till married.' Or a separated
woman, 43 years old, from Evington: 'If control is not obtained
before marriage, it certainly will not after.'

There are three closely related reasons (viii, ix, and x) for abstain-
ing from all sexual experience before marriage ; these are all connected
with the effect on the girl involved. The fact that it is 'unfair' to the
girl is advanced as a reason for male abstention; and many of the
male respondents refer specifically to their own sisters or daughters
as a reason why men should be chaste. This argument is somewhat
favoured by the lower middle class, and is not used at all by the
upper middle; otherwise the distribution is very even.

Thus an unmarried working man from Runcorn :

I don't think it is really fair to the girl he is going to many (although
I should not talk because I have and am now sorry).

A 45-year-old working class man from Southend-on-Sea:
I have two daughters of my own (verb sap).

The argument that such experience degrades the girl and cheapens
her, makes her feel tawdry or second-hand, and destroys her self-
respect and the respect of others (argument ix) is advanced more by
women and for women than it is by or for men; but it is invoked
for both sexes and by all groups, though least of all by the young
people, under 24. For the lower working class it is easily the most
important reason for restraint. The danger of pregnancy (reason x)
which can be considered the physical complement of the feelings of
degradation is much more stressed by the married than by the single,
and by the upper and lower middle classes. It is little advanced by
the lower working class.

A number of the v/omen who advance this latter argument bolster

101

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

it up with their own distressing experiences; thus, a 16-year-old girl

from Birmingham:

A girl might have a baby, she has the worry and disgrace the man
just has his fun. Marriage should last and she should be pure. Anyhow
I am illegitimate, but my mother had four children before me,
legitimately.

A 25-year-old married woman of the working class from Shrop-
shire:

We had been married 3 months when our oldest boy was born and
though we love each other very much we both realize that we behaved
foolishly. Not only does it mean sorrow for the boy and girl, but their
families too. We were lucky. Our folk helped us.

A 31 -year-old married woman from London:

She takes a chance and nearly always pays for her experience with a
baby, like I did, while the wolf goes free.

A married woman from Sheffield :

In these days of womens clinics it is not needful to try before you buy.
From my childhood I made up my mind I would never marry a man
who had sexual relations with me before, my mother was pregnant
when married and hated my father for it.

The other physical danger, venereal disease (reason xi), is advanced
more by and for men, particularly younger men, than by women;
the group is not large, but it does suggest that the anti-venereal-
disease campaign has on occasion been too successful and created
unrealistic phobias.

Thus, a 22-year-old working class bachelor from South-East
London:

In my opinion it is immoral to have sexual experience before marriage,
thus creating V.D.

or the 21-year-old Bristol bachelor:

It seems to me that this sort of thing lowers the general moral tone
of the populace. Also, I think it a crime to be responsible for congenital
syphilis in children.

This fear runs into the obscure fear (reason xii) that such conduct
will in some way cause harm to future children; only a small and
scattered group takes up this attitude.

There is a small group which has the odd idea (reason xiii) that
nobody would get married if they could have sexual intercourse
outside marriage; these people are barely represented in the more

102

IDEAS ABOUT SEX

prosperous groups, the upper middle or lower working class. Thus,
a separated lower middle class woman from Nottingham:

If a husband has some sexual experience before marriage he really

has nothing to look forward to, and there is no point in his getting

married.

A 29-year-old spinster from Putney:

If he finds he can gain this before marriage he naturally doesn't want
to get married. Also a man seems to lose respect of the woman in
question.

A 30-year-old married woman from Sunderland (Durham):

If young men had it women should too, I think they should start off
together at marriage. If women had sexual experience before hand most
women 1 know wouldn't have been married.

The lower working class are among the most convinced that
experience before marriage leads to promiscuity after (reason xiv);
but a few of all groups, except the young and unmarried, advance
this argument. Thus, a 40-year-old married woman from Thorpe-
next-Norwich:

Its moreish, the more you have the more you want. Because he rarely

marries the girl he has his experience with, and has nothing to lose,

so just continues from one to another.

A single woman from Putney, aged 29:

She is liable to become loose with every man. Also men talk about
these things to one another and in this way a woman can lose her good
name forever.

It is chiefly from the upper middle class (followed by the lower
working class) that the arguments are advanced (reasons xv and
xvi) that pre-marital experience could be inconvenient after marriage,
either because the other spouse would use it as a reproach, or
because he or she might draw invidious comparisons between lover
and spouse. Thus, a single girl of 21 from London who describes
herself as 'a member of a well educated family who have known
better times' :

As far as women are concerned, once having had this experience,

one always wants it and it is injurious to health and the wife may

become impatient with her new husband if he could not satisfy her as

did her previous lover.

A national service man whose home is in Merton Park:

Every man wishes to marry a virgin. Also there is danger of com-
parison when married. (Comparison between husband and other man.)

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 46-year-old working class man from Romford:

If you were not so satisfying for them, they would, one day, tell, how
nice so and so did it.

A single middle working class man from East London, aged 21 :
If she has she would tend to compare her sexual experience with her

present husband and so might be unsatisfied.
I shouldn't like a woman to have sexual intercourse before marriage

and therefore nor should the male.

Among the smaller group who do advocate some experience
before marriage, far and away the most important reason advanced
for this is the desire (reason xvii) to avoid ignorance, maladjustment
or clumsiness on the honeymoon. Nearly one man in six and one
woman in ten advances this as a reason why men should have some
previous experience; nearly one man in ten and one woman in twenty-
five advance this as a reason why women should do so — one more
example of English men being more in favour of female emancipation
than English women. This is an argument whose use increases
consistently with income and decreases with town size, as far as
men are concerned; it has its most numerous advocates in the upper
middle and lower middle classes and in the age group 25-34. As
far as young men are concerned the single, married and divorced
have similar figures; but for young women, the married and divorced
have twice the number of advocates that the single do. The lower
working class, followed by the upper working class, stress this
argument in the case of young women.

A number of respondents cited their own unfortunate experiences
to justify the course they advocated. Thus, a 37-year-old married
woman from Barnshurst:

My own husband made such a mess of it, we ceased relations after

the first year.

A 31 -year-old divorced working class man from Greenwich:

I had no sexual experience before my marriage and I'd never want to
experience my wedding night again.

A 32-year-old married working class man from Essex:
I had none myself and my marriage is now a physical failure.

A 27-year-old middle class man from Strood:
The failure of my own marriage was lack of sexual knowledge.

A 41-year-old married woman of the middle class from North
London:

My personal experience with a virgin husband was most distressing.

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IDEAS ABOUT SEX

A 26-year-old divorced woman from North- West London:

My marriage was recked mainly through a lack of sexual knowledge.
My husband had never had an affair before marriage, [for young
women?] Yes, because one can be disillusioned or shocked by sex —
and to be afraid can have a bad sycological effect if one does not know
what to expect.

A 24-year-old married woman from West Bromwich:

A man should have had some experience because a woman expects a
man to be able to love make. I was bitterly disappointed when I married.
I had to teach him. Sexual experience teaches you things about each
other you can't possibly know otherwise.

A 41-year-old married woman from Walsall:

The cause for much unhappiness for myself was because my husband
had no sexual experience before marriage.

A 49-year-old re-married man from Willesden:

Lack of sexual experience was the cause of my first marriage break-
down.

A 40-year-old separated man from Yateley (Hants.):

Because I got married myself without any sexual experience whatso-
ever, to my sorrow, [for young women?] To help young men as un-
fortunate as myself as I have written about.

A divorced man, middle class, from Leigh-on-Sea, 45-year-old :

I didn't and my marriage went on the rocks from the beginning
through shyness and ignorance of women.

A 30-year-old divorced working class man from Coventry:
My own failure in marriage was due to a lack of sexual experience.

Quotations with the same underlying theme could be continued
over several pages; they strongly suggest that ignorance, particularly
on the part of the men, is a major hazard in English marriages.
A 36-year-old married worker from Nottingham says 'I met men
in the forces who were Married and were dead ignorant about sexual
Matters'. A great deal of my evidence bears out his observation.

The argument that experience before marriage will make for a more
rational choice of marriage partner (reason xviii) is an argument
advanced twice as much by men as by women, and (understandably)
is particularly favoured by the divorced and separated. It also finds
advocates particularly among the younger people and members
of the upper working and working classes; it is not employed at all
by the upper middle class.

105

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 27-year-old separated working class man from Shipley:

He has some idea what he is about when first married and he is less
likely to be landed into marriage and disappointment to find in a few
months there is no love as he thought at first.

A 20-year-old betrothed middle class girl from Birmingham:

Not necessarily 'should' but it's sometimes wisest. You see, I can
quote at least one instance where a couple married and then the woman
found she just couldn't stand him touching her, although she loved and
trusted him.

A 25-year-old unmarried working class man from Hounslow:

The result is inevitably disappointing and he is thenceforth able to
take a more rational view of marriage — stripped of its false glamour
and accent on sex.

A 65-year-old working class man from Rainham:

For one thing it is natural and he's not likely to fall for the first
pretty face and/or pair of lovely legs, the latter I think most English
men fall for.

A widow from Weybridge:

A man should have experience, but not with the woman he chooses
to marry. It is well for him to know whether such experience is worth
marrying for. He is likely to be in less hurry to marry, thereby choosing
wisely and ensuring future happiness.

A women's instinct will tell her whether she will enjoy the experience
or not. If she intends to marry she should wait for fear what she or
parents should suffer through unforeseen circumstances. If she doesn't
intend to marry (or re-marry) she may provided she remains utterly true
to one man.

A 26-year-old unmarried woman from Streatham:

Many young men marry from only physical attraction as the basis
for then* desire to marry. Sexual experience helps to curb that desire,
he does not many so young, and chooses much more wisely someone
with whom he can be really happy, as well as sexually suited.

In a way the reciprocal to the avoidance of marriage based on
glamour is the avoidance of women's fear or disgust at intercourse
or physical intimacy (reason xix). This argument is most advanced
by the divorced and separated, and by members of the working
classes. Although not mentioned by very many, this, like male
ignorance, seems a hazard of English marriage.

A 42-year-old working class married woman from Bradford
writes:

Not knowing much about the facts of life before marriage, it came as
rather a shock to my nervous system.

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IDEAS ABOUT SEX

A 44-year-old married woman from a Norfolk village (who
herself had two babies before marriage) :

I knew a home that was nearly wrecked through a young woman that
got married. She was disgusted when her husband suggested intercourse.
She thought he married her to cook and keep his house clean.

The 46-year-old middle class woman from Folkstone may, or
may not, be in a similar case; she writes:

A difficult question as I really loathe sexual experience. This has only
happened since my marriage, as my husband was almost a sexual
maniac.

A further small group argues that experience before marriage
makes for fidelity after marriage (reason xx). This argument is
chiefly used by the more prosperous women. Thus a 34-year-old
married woman of the middle class from Carlingham (Yorks):

It is better to sow wild oats before, and not after, marriage. Some

women cannot reconcile themselves to that side of marriage. Better to

break an engagement than a man's heart.

A 17|-year-old working class youth from near Nantwich:

Quoting from my own experience of my father, what experience he's
missed before marriage he will make up for after marriage elsewhere.

A 28-year-old woman, once widowed, once divorced, and now
happily married:

I would sooner a man do it before marriage because after marriage
he may feel he has missed something and start out then to sow his
wild oats.

A 51 -year-old lower middle class widow from London:

To sow a few 'wild oats' within reason helps him in experience when
he gets married, and make things pleasanter for the wife; and if a woman
'tastes before she buys' there would not be so many broken marriages
through incompatibility, or disappointment through couples being
unsuitable to one another, as in my own case.

The group who favour intercourse with the betrothed only (reason
xxi) are extremely evenly distributed. A 25-year-old betrothed man
from Birmingham:

If the fellow is engaged to the girl and all is on the up and up I think it

is an extra bond,

A working class married woman from Yorkshire:

A girl should not, because I did — with my husband and I've often
wished we'd waited. Neither of us ever refers to it and we are very
happy in our marriage even so.

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 34-year-old married woman from London S.E.:

I did myself, fortunately to the man I really love my husband, I
became pregnant. I wish now that we had been sensible and got
married first. If my husband hadn't loved me I would have borne an
illegitimate child and 'labelled' easy to get. (We had been engaged 2
years when this happened).

A 49-year-old separated woman from Chelsea:

They might suit in everything but not in sexual love, if sexual love
goes wrong everything goes wrong. Marriage is three parts sex.

A 30-year-old 'ordinary working class' married man from Leicester :
Because it means a lot in married life and its nice to know if you can
get on alright with your lover, [for young women?] My reason is the
same as above. But I don't mean they should go around trying whoever
comes along. It should only occur if you intend to marry for love.

The five arguments so far advanced are all concerned with the
success of the marriage subsequent to the pre-marital experience.
Together they account for nearly two-thirds of the reasons advanced
for young men having some experience before marriage, and nearly
three-quarters of the arguments for young women. The remaining
reasons are concerned with various theoretical views concerning
'human nature' and the effect of sexual intercourse on health and
character, none of which are very widely spread; the position of the
3 per cent who would exclude intercourse from pre-marital sexual
experience is however somewhat ambiguous.

Sexual experience without intercourse is presumably the English
equivalent of what the Americans call 'heavy petting'; and it is
probably significant that the advocates for these practices are heavily
concentrated in the upper middle class, followed by the lower
working class. The upper middle class emphasis follows Kinsey's
finding2 that in the U.S.A. this custom is most widespread among
the college-educated portion of his sample.

Examples of this attitude are a 19-year-old middle class youth
from Leicestershire :

My answer 'no' stands definite if by *sexual experience' you mean
intercourse. I have no objection to moderate 'pretence' love-making
or Tair-play' kissing.

A working class youth from Reading of the same age :

If by sexual experience it means sexual intercourse, this is wrong as
I believe that a man should enter marriage 'clean'. I do think there is
nothing wrong with 'love making' before marriage provided both
parties are sensible about it.

108

IDEAS ABOUT SEX

A 31 -year-old married lower middle class man from Manchester:
Whilst not condoning pre-marital intercourse, I do think 'petting'
can be a great help. My reason is that for the first few months of my
marriage I had a lot of difficulty in this direction, most of which could
have been avoided had my wife and I had some previous experience.
A 194-year-old middle class Liverpool girl:

Don't know. Can't make up my mind about this but I am sure I
would never hate a boy for this as if I loved him I know I should want
to as I think Nature is a beautiful thing, [for young women?] Don't
know. Again I am uncertain as my boy friend has often asked me often
and as I love him very much to me it does not seem wrong. Its just that
I am afraid as I do not want to hurt my family.

A prosperous upper working class girl aged 18 from East Croydon:
It helps him to be more gentle and understanding. I do think, however,
that he should not go the whole way until he meets his future wife, [for
young women?] Really the same as for a man. When people have had
a little experience they know how to make their loved one happy and
content without too much misunderstanding, shyness, etc.

An upper middle class 18-year-old youth from Berkhamsted
(Herts):

I don't really think a young man should experience actual intercourse
before marriage; a certain amount of passionate love-making and
possibly homosexuality are not harmful.

The argument that sexual experience has desirable effects on the
character, by making the experienced more mature or more confident
or with a broader outlook finds slightly more advocates among the
women as far as male experience is concerned; this pattern is reversed
(though the numbers are barely half as many) in the case of female
experience. This argument is most heavily pressed by the divorced
and separated; it is also favoured by the younger groups (especially
the under 18's) and members of the middle class. The lower working
class advance it hardly at all, and the upper middle very little.

A 28-year-old unmarried man from Mitcham of the lower middle
class :

It broadens a chaps mind. It has a Psychological effect on a young
man, it fetches out the manliness. No woman likes to think that she is
going around with an inexperienced overgrown schoolboy.

What might be called the therapeutic attitude to sexual experience
— the belief that it will ward ofif physiological or psychological dis-
turbances if taken regularly — has very few advocates among the
English and these are significantly concentrated in the most pros-
perous groups of the middle and upper middle classes living in big

109

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

cities. These small groups presumably represent the extent of the
impact of diluted psycho-analytic thought and simplified versions of
mental health on an English audience; it seems probable that such
reasons would be advanced by a far greater portion of the population
in the United States.

This viewpoint is typified by a 58-year-old married working class
man from Morecambe and Heysham (Lanes) :

Nature cannot be hidden — the natural tendency is ever prominent
and perversion can be averted by practical experience with a young
woman with the same desires, [for young women?] As above and for
both male and female sexual desires are far better eased by intercourse
than by personal actions.

The periphrasis employed above occurs with some regularity.
An attempt at plainer speaking by a 61 -year-old working class man
from East Kirby (Notts) resulted in: 'Yes. Its either that or
mastication*.

Finally there is the group (5 per cent in the case of men, and 2
per cent in the case of women) who consider pre-marital experience
'natural' and 'normal'. I was myself surprised at how small this
group turned out to be. This view of human nature is held much more
by men than by women, and finds its greatest proportion of advocates
in the lower working class, followed by the working and middle
class. It is advocated very little by the upper working and lower
middle classes; it is a relatively popular idea in the Midlands, but
is little held in the South- West, or North-East and North. Thus a
married coalminer aged 45, from West Melton, Yorks :

Yes, Because he cant help reacting to nature and I dont think there
are many who dont. [for young women?] Dont know. I think I would
have to change sex to be able to answer this truthfully.

A 30-year-old Surbiton bachelor who describes himself as *A low
paid relic of the Bourgeois Intelligentsia* :

A man's nature demands sex satisfaction before he is sufficiently
mature to contract matrimonial responsibilities.

A 61 -year-old married middle class woman from Margate:

For men, yes, because it is natural and men are made of a different
kind of ruling, [for young women ?] No, because when a girl goes to
the altar a virgin she can hold up her head and tell her husband to go
to hell if she had due cause to in the case of ill treatment.

A 27-year-old married man from Wealdstone (Mddx):

Yes, because it is normal and providing precautions are taken not to
get the girl in trouble, in the same way for women though I didnt touch
my wife until we were married.

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IDEAS ABOUT SEX

A 36-year-old miner from Barnsby :

It is only natural, whenever anything Bird, Beast, or man decide to
become mates they have to have that experience, i.e. you would hardly
buy anything without taking a look at it first.

Presumably the same argument was advanced for the unfortunate
17-year-old girl who writes:

Recently I was sexually assaulted it was horrid and for a few weeks
after I thought sex was a shameful thing but now I understand it isn't,
it was just the way this man approached me.

In this review of the reasons given for and against sexual experience
before marriage, I have not, except incidentally, paid attention to
different respondents' views of the relationship between what is
considered appropriate conduct for young men and for young women.
In current phraseology the term 'double standard' is used for the
view that sexual experience before marriage is suitable for one sex
(typically and almost universally, men) and not for the other; 'single
standard' is used when the same rules of conduct are applied to
both sexes.

Cross-correlations show that the vast majority of the English
population employ a single standard of sexual morality. The only
significant exception is that slightly under a third of those who are in
favour of pre-marital experience for young men are against such
experience for young women, and this is barely 10 per cent of the
total population. There is a tiny (and somewhat inexplicable) group
of less than one in a hundred who reverse this preference, and would
allow experience to the woman but not to the man. For nine English
men and women out of ten what is sauce for the goose is sauce for
the gander.

My impression — for this cannot unfortunately be completely
substantiated with the figures at my disposal — is that it is the women
who tend to advocate the double standard, whereas the men (albeit
often unwillingly) opt for the single standard.

The women, whether married or unmarried, who advocate the
double standard do so with a view to achieving greater happiness,
or avoiding unhappiness, in marriage. Thus, an unmarried upper
middle class woman from Godalming, aged 23:

[for men?] Yes, because I can imagine little worse than two complete

novices on a wedding night! [for women?] No, in most circumstances

no. — I intend to be really in love with, and love, the man I marry and

would prefer to keep myself for him.

A Liverpool girl of not quite 17:
I think yes because until a man has such an experience he really

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Figure VI
Question 49 by Question 50

49. Do you think a young man should have some sexual experience before he gets
married ?

50. Do you think a young woman should have some sexual experience before she
gets married?

Question 50

Question 49

1 i

Yes

Don't know

No answer

Total

Yes

100

Don't know

100

No answer

100

Total

100

Figure VII
Question 50 by Question 49

50 Do you think a young woman should have some sexual experience before she
gets married7

49. Do you think a young man should have some sexual experience before he gets
married ?

Question 49

Question 50

Yes

Don't know

No answer

Total

Yes

100

Don't know

100

No answer

100

Total

100

cannot define LOVE as anything particular, because men fall victims
to their emotions much more easily than women, [for young women?]
No, because although I am a woman and believe in Equality of the
sexes, I am still old-fashioned enough to believe a woman should be
perfectly pure before she enters into matrimony.

A 33-year-old married woman from Hove:

On the husband's success at love-making depends his bride's physical
and mental pleasure. A hesitating, shy man would be terrible, [for
women?] No, because she must have lost a certain self-respect, and also
may be tempted to marry purely for physical reasons. Also an old
fashioned maybe, but deep rooted prejudice.

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IDEAS ABOUT SEX

A 23-year-old unmarried working class woman from Exeter:

I should think he would be much more considerate to his wife due to
previous experience, [for women?] No, because most men prefer a
pure wife, and it must be nice to know you are that.

A 25-year-old unmarried working class woman from Southampton :
I would rather have my husband know what he is doing, but for a
girl I do not consider this necessary as she takes more risks.

This combination of arguments occurs with considerable fre-
quency; it also has some, but fewer, male advocates. The reverse
argument, as has been said, is advanced by very few and seems to
be idiosyncratic. A 45-year-old working class man from a village in
Leicestershire (who considers his major good qualities poaching,
gardening and hard work) writes :

[for a young man ?] It is unnecessary, as love will find a way as soon as

a man and woman get to bed together [for a young woman?] She can

easily spoil her life through ignorance, she will also know what to expect

on her wedding night.

A 28-year-old 'middle working class' woman from Bromley:

[for a young man?] I think no because a man soon learns quick
enough, if he has experience before marriage he wouldn't want to get
married, [for a young woman?] Yes, here I think yes to save disillusion.
A woman nearly always wants to marry for so many reasons beyond
sexual love.

A single man from Bootle :

[for a young man?] It is not absolutely necessary, [for a young
woman ?] Yes. A woman is different they go for the man but a man does
not go for a woman.

A 49-year-old married woman from Gainsborough:

[for a young man?] uncertain, [for a young woman?] Yes. Then she
realizes what marriage means.

The advocates of the double standard seem to have as their major
value their own happiness, or the success of marriage in general.
The advocates of the single standard of complete pre-marital chastity
for both sexes (and it is worth recalling that this is far and away the
most widespread English attitude) presumably have as chief value
the categorical imperatives of morality, according to their views.
Similarly many of the advocates of the single standard, permitting
pre-marital experience to both sexes, seem also to have as their
chief value moral considerations, in this case justice or equity,
which often over-ride deep-felt attitudes and prejudices. Emotionally,

113

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

many of the men respondents would prefer a double standard;
but since they claim licence for themselves, their sense of justice will
not allow them to deny the same licence to others (women). This
lively sense of justice seems to me one of the most admirable, as it is
also one of the most widespread, of English characteristics ; and it
seems worth while calling attention to it in this context, where it
is in patent conflict with another aspect of morality.

These attitudes become apparent in the answers which men give
to the question whether young women should have sexual experience
before marriage, when they have already answered positively in the
case of young men. This type of answer is fairly stereotyped, and a
small selection can stand for the whole group. Typical is a 29-year-
old lower middle class man from West Wickham:

It seems unfair to deny to a woman a right which I claim for myself,

and yet I know I should be upset to marry a girl other than a virgin.

A lower middle class bachelor from Wallasey, aged 25 :

I am torn between natural desire to marry a virgin, yet feel selfish
if I say 'no' in view of my answer for men.

A 21-year-old bachelor from Halifax, middle class:

I am tempted to answer, a young woman should not have sexual
experience prior to marriage — but if I agree that men should, then in
my opinion it goes equally for both sexes.

A married man 'sort of lower middle class' from Sheerness (Kent)
aged 41 :

I've said 'yes' in the young man's case, so equal rights etc. gives me
yes here, yet wishing I could put No.

A married working class man from Lincoln, aged 33 :

Anyone who tackles a big job should be trained for it marriage and
sex life is a big job, and for women my answer obviously has to be the
same, but I suggest a woman does not obtain her training from too
many teachers.

Besides the hypothesis just advanced that English men tend to
place ethical principles first and English women more practical
considerations, there is another possible explanation for women
giving support to a double standard of pre-marital sexual morality,
and men to a single one; this is the difference in views which English
men and women appear to hold about the nature of women's
sexuality. Stated briefly, English men tend to the belief that women's
interest in sex is as great as, or greater than, that of men; English

114

IDEAS ABOUT SEX

women on the contrary consider that the physical aspects of sex mean
less to them than to their menfolk.

These statements have been phrased rather tentatively, because
they are derived from the answers to a question with the type of
instructions which apparently3 are too difficult to follow accurately.
Respondents were asked to mark one of four statements which they
most agreed with, and one which they most disagreed with; but more
than a third of the population were unable to restrain themselves
to a single choice in each column; and so, instead of the base-line of
100 per cent, there are 134 per cent of agreed statements and 127
per cent of disagreed. Men and women over-mark in nearly equal
numbers.4

The sentences among which respondents were asked to choose
were:

(i) Most women don't care much about the physical side of sex.
(ii) Women don't have such an animal nature as men.
(iii) Women really enjoy the physical side of sex just as much as men.
(iv) Women tend to enjoy sex more than men.

Sixteen per cent of the men and 26 per cent of the women agree
with the statement 'Most women don't care much about the physical
side of sex'; 55 per cent of the men, contrasted with 39 per cent of
the women disagree with it. The agreement is most concentrated
among the poor, the middle aged and elderly, members of the lower
working class and especially the widowed ; it finds fewest advocates
among the young (under 34), the more prosperous, members of
the upper working and lower middle classes, and quite markedly,
the Midlands. Disagreement with this sentiment follows much the
same pattern, with a concentration among the unmarried under 24,
the more prosperous, and the upper working, middle and working
classes.

The other sentiment repudiating female sexuality — 'Women don't
have such an animal nature as men' — shows much the same pattern.
Forty-eight per cent of the women but only 38 per cent of the men
state their agreement with it; 13 per cent of the women but 21 per
cent of the men their disagreement. Once more it is the poor, the
middle aged and elderly, the widowed and the lower working class
who stress this notion most; they are joined with — though to a lesser
extent — the upper middle and middle classes, the divorced and
separated, and the two Northern regions. The idea is most vehemently
rejected by the young, the unmarried and the more prosperous; it
is very little mentioned by the inhabitants of small towns and villages
(presumably because they know something about animals).

115

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

The pattern already discernible continues with the egalitarian
statement 'Women really enjoy the physical side of sex just as much
as men'. Sixty-three per cent of the men agree with this statement,
compared with 51 per cent of the women; a mere 10 per cent of
the men, but 18 per cent of the women, reject it. Acceptance is
markedly higher among the unmarried, aged between 18 and 24,
the prosperous, especially the £12-£15 a week group, the upper
middle class and, once again, the Midlands; it is lowest among the
poor, the middle-aged and elderly, and the widowed. It is the same
group which actively rejects this statement the most.

Fifteen per cent of the men, but a mere 4 per cent of the women,
state their agreement that 'Women tend to enjoy sex more than men' ;
39 per cent of the men, but 57 per cent of the women disagree with
it. This rather surprising belief is particularly held by the young and
unmarried; it may be a reflection of the difference in the conscious
awakening of interest in the opposite sex already noted.5 It is parti-
cularly held in the North-West, followed by the Midlands. It is
little advanced by the widowed, or by members of the upper middle
or lower middle classes. Its most emphatic rejection comes from
the middle aged (35-64), the widowed, the poor and the upper
middle and lower working classes.

These remarkable figures — and they do seem to me remarkable
— allow some tentative conclusions. Among the young, the unmarried
and the more prosperous, especially in the Midlands, there is a
belief, held more strongly by men than women, that women's sexual
feelings are as strong as, or stronger than, men's; this belief dimi-
nishes with marriage, increase in age, or decrease in income. Putting
the tables together, one might hypothesise that thirty years ago there
was a fairly widespread belief in the 'lesser animality' of women;
and secondly that many women find disillusionment, at least on
the physical level, in marriage around the age of 35.

The last two chapters have analysed in considerable detail some
English attitudes towards love and sex. A number of cross-correla-
tions were made to attempt to discover to what extent the views
expressed were internally consistent; and also in the hope of finding
out what other characteristics distinguish the minority who depart
from the English pattern of complete chastity before marriage and
complete fidelity thereafter.

On the basis of these correlations, it can be said quite unambigu-
ously that the greatest influence making for pre-marital chastity
is the active practice of religion. Correlating the questions about

116

IDEAS ABOUT SEX

the desirability of pre-marital experience for young men or women
with attendance at religious services there are nearly double the
number of advocates for pre-marital experience from those who
never go to Church, or only for weddings and funerals, as compared
with those who go once a month or more often. The figures become
even more marked if the questions are correlated with private
devotions, where those who never say prayers, or only in peril and
grief, have more than double the advocates for pre-marital experi-
ence compared with those who pray daily or more frequently.
Religion, particularly private religion, appears the strongest bulwark
of the austere English sexual morality.

Figures VIII and IX
Question 84 by Question 49
Question 84 by Question 50
84. Do you attend Church or religious services?

49. Do you think a young man should have some sexual experience before he gets
married ?

50. Do you think a young woman should have some sexual experience before she
gets married?

Figure VIII Figure IX

Question 49

Question 50

Question 84

Yes

Don't
know

No
Ans-

Total

Yes

Don't
know

No
Ans-

Total

wer

More than once a week

100

Once a week

100

Less than once a week

but more than once

a month

100

Less than once a month

100

Once or twice a year

100

Only for weddings and

funerals

100

Never

100

No answer

—

100

—

100

Total

100

There is also some evidence for the often promulgated belief
that the influence of American films tends towards the loosening of
the bonds of English morality. It was only a very small group (7
per cent) who said they thought that 'English people fall in love the
way you see Americans doing it on the films'; but this group are

117

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Figures X and XI
Question 85 by Question 49

Question 85 by Question 50
85. Do you say private prayers?

49. Do you think a young man should have some sexual experience before he gets
married ?

50. Do you think a young woman should have some sexual experience before she
gets married?

Figure X Figure XI

Question 49

Question 50

Question 85

Yes

Don't
know

No
Ans-

Total

Yes

Don't
know

No
Ans-

Total

wer

More than once a day

100

Daily

100

Only in peril or grief

100

Very seldom

100

Never

100

No answer

100

Total

100

Figures XII and XIII
Question 44 by Question 49

Question 44 by Question 50

44. Do you think English people fall in love in the way you see Americans doing
it in the films?

49. Do you think a young man should have some sexual experience before he gets
married ?

50. Do you think a young woman should have some sexual experience before she
gets married?

Figure XII

Figure XIII

Question 49

Question 50

Question 44

Yes

Don't

know

No
ans-

Total

Yes

Don't
know

No
ans-

Total

wer

Yes

100

Don't know

100

No answer

100

Total

100

118

IDEAS ABOUT SEX

Figures XIV and XV
Question 42 by Question 49
Question 42 by Question 50
42. Would you say you had ever been really in love?

49. Do you think a young man should have some sexual experience before he
gets married ?

50. Do you think a young woman should have some sexual experience before she
gets married?

Figure XIV Figure XV

Question 49

Question 50

Question 42

Yes

Don't
know

No
ans-

Total

Yes

Don't
know

No
ans-

Total

wer

Yes

100

Don't know

100

No answer

100

Total

100

Figures XVI and XVII
Question 43 by Question 49
Question 43 by Question 50
43. Do you expect to fall really in love some time?

49. Do you think a young man should have some sexual experience before he gets
married?

50. Do you think a young woman should have some sexual experience before she
gets married ?

Figure XVI Figure XVII

Question 49

Question 50

Question 43

Yes

Don't
know

No
ans-

Total

Yes

Don't
know

No
ans-

Total

wer

Yes

100

Don't know

100

No answer

100

Total

100

119

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

markedly more in favour of pre-marital experience for both sexes
than are the majority who do not consider American films represen-
tative of English habits.

There seems no connection at all with the experience of having
been 'really in love' and views about pre-marital experience; but
those who expect to 'fall really in love some time' are consistently
more in favour of pre-marital experience than those who do not.
The relevant question was not asked; but it looks as though there
are two groups in the population, one of which believes that falling
in love is a unique experience in life, normally culminating in
marriage, and the other that falling in love is a repeatable perform-
ance; for this latter group, with its expectations of the future,
experiment in the past would appear permissible.

There is also a convincing correlation between the attitudes to
female sexuality described above and the desirability of experience
before marriage. Those who think women's enjoyment of sex is
equal to or greater than men's are markedly more in favour of
experience before marriage than are those who consider that women
do not care much about the physical side of sex, or do not have
such an 'animal' nature as man. There would appear to be a
connection between viewing men and women as equal or similar,
and permissiveness concerning sexual experience before marriage.
This does not however seem to apply to love affairs outside marriage;
when the question about women's sexuality is correlated with the
question 'Not counting marriage have you ever had a real love
affair?' no discernible pattern emerges.

A possible explanation for this rather surprising result might
be that the main motive for extra-marital love affairs is lack of
satisfaction with the sexual aspect of marriage; in which case the
unsatisfied women, or men with frigid wives, though they may have
affairs outside marriage, would not be particularly inclined to agree
with generalizations that women get as much or more pleasure from
sex than men. This explanation is given some backing by the fact
that those who have had 'a real love affair' outside marriage are
more likely to answer the question Tn marriage do you think sexual
love is very important ?' emphatically than those who disclaim such
experiences.

An attempt was made, within the limits of cross-correlation, to
check a couple of psychological hypotheses. Dr Kinsey and others
have stated that early onset of puberty and high interest in sexual
activity are related; so I correlated the question about the impor-
tance of sexual love in marriage with the reported age of onset of

120

IDEAS ABOUT SEX

Figures XVIII and XIX

Question 53 by Question 49

Question 53 by Question 50
53. Please mark the statement you most agree with:

49. Do you think a young man should have some sexual experience before he gets
married ?

50. Do you think a young woman should have some sexual experience before she
gets married?

Figure XVIII

Figure XIX

Question 49

Question 50

Question 53

Yes

Don't
know

ans-

Total

Yes

Don't
know

No
ans-

Total

wer

Most women don't care

much about the phy-

sical side of sex

100

Women don't have such

animal natures as

men

100

Women really enjoy the

physical side of sex

just as much as men

100

Women tend to enjoy

sex more than men

100

No answer

100

Total

100

Figure XX

Question 47 by Question 53

47. Not counting marriage, have you ever had a real love affair?
53. Please mark the statement you most agree with:

Question 53

Question
47

Most women
don't care
much about
the physical
side of sex

Women don't
have such
an animal
nature as
men

Women really
enjoy the
physical
side of sex
as much as

Women tend
to enjoy
sex more
than men

No
ans-
wer

Total

men

Yes

132

Not really

129

133

No answer

145

Total

134

121

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Figure XXI
Question 48 by Question 47

48. In marriage do you think sexual love is very important17
47. Not counting marriage, have you ever had a real love affair?

Question 47

Question 48

Yes

Not really

No answer

Total

Very important

100

Fairly important

100

Not very important

100

Not important at all

100

No answer

100

Total

100

Figure XXII
Question 39 by Question 48

39. How old were you when you first started being interested m girls (boys) ?
48. In marriage, do you think sexual love is very important?

Question 39

Question 48

Very

Fairly

Not very

Not im-

impor-
tant

portant
at all

answer

Total

Up to 10 years

100

11, 12 and 13 years

100

14, 15 and 16 years

100

17, 18 and 19 years

100

20, 21 and 22 years

100

23, 24 and 25 years

100

26 years and over

100

Not interested

100

Don't know

100

No answer

100

Total

100

real interest in the opposite sex. The result is marked and consistent;
there is a marked decline in the value given to sex in marriage by
those whose interest in the opposite sex developed after the age of
sixteen.6

A second hypothesis tested was that advanced by psychoanalysts
on the relationship between early training in cleanliness and general

122

IDEAS ABOUT SEX

rigidity of character. The questions about the permissibility of pre-
marital experience were correlated with the answers to the question
'When should a young child start being trained to be clean?'7 The
results are an extremely neat confirmation of the hypothesis. In
the two ambiguous categories 'as early as possible' and 'as soon as

Figure XXIII
Question 49 by Question 63

49. Do you think a young man should have some sexual experience before he gets
married ?

63. When should a young child start being trained to be clean?

Question 63

Question 49

S
o

2J •o

Total

9) Q

i-p

w "?

•5

< OH

< 5

Yes

100

Don't know

—

100

No answer

—

100

Total

100

Figure XXIV
Question 50 by Question 63

50. Do you think a young woman should have some sexual experience before she
gets married ?

63. When should a young child start being trained to be clean?

Question 63

Question 50

£j

1.1

c 5

Total

«§

£,

"* § ^

M §

—«

s i i'S

< a

o 1 < §

X i

Yes

100

Don't know

100

No answer

—

100

Total

100

123

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

it can understand' the percentages for and against pre-marital
experience are equally balanced. Those who advocate that cleanli-
ness training should start after the child is twelve months old are also
markedly permissive about pre-marital experience; those who
advocate training from birth or during the first two months of life
are more rigid in their attitudes towards sexual experience before
marriage. Those who advocate the starting of cleanliness training
between the age of two and twelve months are nearly evenly divided
though with a little more permissiveness in those advocating the
later start. The English attitudes towards sex fall more fully into
focus when the factors involved in the training of an English man or
girl are taken into account.

NOTES TO CHAPTER EIGHT

1. A few respondents gave more than one reason, which accounts for the slight
discrepancy of the total.

2. Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male, pp. 345-7, et passim.

3. See Appendix Two, p. 318.

4. It is interesting to note that there is no social group, however high their income
or social class (which on the whole correspond with education) which did not have
at least a fifth of its members failing to follow the instructions, though the number
of excessive responses are greater among the poor, the working and lower working
class, the middle aged and old.

5. See p. 78.

6. Unfortunately the answers to the question about the onset of interest in the
other sex had (for the purposes of this table) been rather clumsily categorized in
groups of three years; consequently the contrast in the figures is, if anything, too
blatant, and the variations do not come out as subtly as they probably would have
done if the answers had been categorized by single years.

7. See Chapter Eleven.

124

CHAPTER NINE

MARRIAGE I: HOPES AND FEARS

As A GENERALIZATION it may be said that what English men most
value in their wives is the possession of appropriate feminine skills,
whereas what English women most value in their husbands is an
agreeable character. This seems to be true both for the married and
the single, and for all classes and regions. Neither sex pays any
appreciable heed to the aesthetic qualities of their spouse; beauty
or strength, good looks or good figure are very seldom mentioned,
and then chiefly by the single; and it is also a very small group (less
than one in twenty) who mention specifically sexual characteristics
— being a good lover, staying sweet-hearts and so on.

No answers were suggested to the question: 'What do you think
are the three most important qualities a wife (or husband) should
have?'; and originally the answers were divided into 28 categories.
It was found however that, apart from the qualities which only
apply to one sex (for example, being a good mother) there were some
qualities mentioned by so few people that they could be ignored.
Besides beauty and good looks and being a good lover, gentleness,
trusting one's husband or wife, and helping in the house were
mentioned by less than 5 per cent;1 and, as will be seen, some
qualities which bulk very high for one sex, drop to practical
insignificance for the other.

Before the lists are detailed, it may be helpful to explain a few
blanket terms I employed. I used the phrase 'moral qualities* for
those traits which in a religious context might have been called
virtues; good principles, sincerity, integrity, Christian principles,
*a good honest outlook9, 'honesty to be straightforward', and so on.
The phrase 'personal qualities' refers to traits with social or physical
rather than moral significance: 'to keep oneself attractive and smart',
'cleanliness', 'always clean and tidy in the home', 'good conversa-
tionalist', 'good manners and good company', 'well dressed' and
so on. The phrase 'equanimity* covers all the variations of tact, good
temper, not getting angry and so on.

English men look for or admire qualities in their wives in the
following order:

(i) Good housekeeper 29 per cent

(ii) Personal qualities 26 „ „

(in) Understanding 23 „ „

(iv) Love 22 », „

125

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

(v) Faithfulness 21 per cent

(vi) Good cook 21

(vii) Intelligence 18

(vm) Good mother 18

(ix) Sense of humour 1 6

(x) Economical 16

(xi) Moral qualities 13

(xii) Patience 11

(xiii) Tolerance 9

(xiv) Share husband's interests 8

(xv) Love of home 7

(xvi) Equanimity 7

As can be seen, five of the first ten qualities refer to skills as house-
wife and mother; in the first ten qualities which women list, only
the tenth refers directly to the husband as provider and father.
The qualities looked for and admired in their husbands by English
women are :

(i) Understanding 33 per cent

(11) Thoughtfulness 28 „

(iii) Sense of humour 24 „

(iv) Moral qualities 24 „

(v) Faithfulness 21 „ „

(vi) Generosity 19 „

(vii) Love 17 „

(vni) Tolerance 14 ,, ,,

(ix) Love of home 14

(x) Fairness 13

(xi) Good father 13

(xn) Personal qualities 1 2

(xiii) Good worker 12

(xiv) Treat wife as person 1 1

(xv) Equanimity 10

(xvi) Intelligence 8

(xvii) Virility, strength, courage 8

With relatively few exceptions, the experience of marriage does
not much alter the importance given to the different qualities. The
single put more stress than the married on intelligence and under-
standing; and the small demand for beauty comes chiefly from the
unmarried. Marriage teaches men to put greater value on their
wives* skills: personal qualities are mentioned very considerably
more by the married than by the single; to a lesser extent, so are
being a good housekeeper, being economical and being a good
mother. The only trait which married women mention significantly
more than their unmarried sisters is thoughtfulness.

For what the observation may be worth, the qualities of under-
standing, love, faithfulness, thoughtfulness and generosity were
listed as first choice much more frequently than as second or third.
This may imply that these qualities are valued more highly than
those which bulk larger in second or third position; these are:

126

MARRIAGE I: HOPES AND FEARS

sense of humour, intelligence, moral and personal qualities, being
a good worker, helping in the house, treating wife as a person,
sharing husband's interests, being a good mother, and being
economical.

For most of the qualities distribution by region, age, income or
class does not seem to be significant; there are however a certain
number for which the variations are suggestive. Thus, the naming
of personal qualities is most marked in the North-East and North,
followed by the North- West; from people between the ages of 25
and 64 with incomes of £5-£12 a week, in the middle, upper middle
and working classes. Being a good housekeeper is stressed by men
in the Midlands, North- West, North-East and North, with incomes
of £8-£15, in the upper working, working, and lower working
classes. Being a good cook is most stressed by men from the North-
East and North, followed by the Midlands, in the £5-£8 income
group in the working and lower working classes. Being a good
mother is once again most stressed in the North-East and North,
followed by the Midlands, by men in the £5~£12 income group,
concentrated in the upper middle and upper working classes. From
these figures it does seem that one of the major regional differences
in England is the attitude towards women;2 and that women's
skills are more highly valued in the North-East and North (followed
by the Midlands) than in the rest of the country, particularly by the
middle income working class. With a single exception, there is no
parallel regional variation in the qualities women demand of their
husbands ; understanding (which, it will be remembered, was highly
valued by both sexes) is quite markedly stressed in the South- West.
This quality is particularly valued by the young; mention of it
decreases steadily with age.

A second quality which is particularly demanded by the young
is intelligence, with the bulk of those naming it being under 24. The
demand for this quality increases with income, with a marked jump
when income passes £12 a week. The upper middle and (rather
strangely) the lower working classes particularly stress intelligence.

Two qualities which are more stressed by the middle aged than
by the young are faithfulness and thrift. The demand for thrift comes
more from the median income groups than from the very poor in
the working classes.

Moral qualities are most stressed by the upper middle, middle
and upper working classes, and by the very poor as well as by those
with over £12 a week.

It can, I think, be deduced that English spinsters think more, and

127

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

more seriously, about marriage than do English bachelors. Seven
per cent of the unmarried did not answer the question : 'What are
the three chief faults husbands or wives tend to have?', and three-
fifths of these abstainers were men. A number, who had listed the
qualities desirable in a wife, wrote to the effect that, not being
married, they knew nothing about wives' faults ; a similar reticence
is rare on the part of unmarried women. Consequently, the base
line for percentages is 285 per cent, rather than 300 per cent, which
it would have been had everybody answered.

The list of faults is (as might be expected) considerably longer
than the list of qualities; but there are 11 which are mentioned by
such small groups (less than 3 per cent of either sex) that they can
be listed and then disregarded. The most surprising item on this
discard list is infidelity or flirting; women mention it a little more
than men, but it hardly appears at all. Other minority complaints
made by both sexes are: neglecting the spouse for the children;
not sharing interests of spouse; hostility to spouse's parents or
friends; always being dissatisfied; sexual difficulties. Only very few
husbands complained that their wives were vain or thought too
much about clothes, that they were bad cooks or spoiled the children.
Only a very few wives complained that their husbands went out too
much alone, thrust too many responsibilities on their wives, or saw
too much of their mothers and compared their wives unfavourably
with their mothers.

A few of the blanket terms used in the list can profitably be expan-
ded. 'Moral faults' are the converse of 'moral qualities' — such
attributes as irresponsibility, lying, stubbornness, greed. A number of
synonyms are gathered under the term 'Lack of intelligence': lack of
interest, illogical, mentally lazy, narrow-minded, dull, boring etc. etc.

The faults that English men find in their wives are as follows :

(i) Nagging, scolding, fault-finding 29 per cent

(ii) Lack of intelligence 24

(iii) Gossip 21

(iv) Extravagance 17

(v) Domineering, bossiness, hen-pecking 16

(vi) Selfishness 16

(vii) Letting herself go, slovenly, dress badly, etc. 13

(viii) Over-anxious, always worrying 13

(ix) Jealousy, lack of trust 12

(x) Bad temper 1 1

(xi) Moral faults 11

(xii) Bad housekeeper 10

(xiii) Too houseproud, too tidy 8

(xiv) Making invidious comparisons, run down husband, etc. 6

(xv) Making herself a martyr, being too self-sacrificing 6

128

MARRIAGE I: HOPES AND FEARS

The faults which women find in their husbands are very different;
only six items appear in both lists; and the women concentrate
on one single fault—selfishness—in a fashion which is quite different
to the wider scatter of the men. These are the faults which English
women find in their husbands :

(i) Selfishness 56 er cent

(11) Lack of intelligence 20

(in) Taking wife for granted 1 8

(iv) Lazy, sleepy, won't help in house 18

(v) Untidiness j7

(vi) Complacency, conceit, self-opinionated 16

(vii) Bad temper 13

(viii) Moral faults 13

(ix) Mean with money 10

(x) Forgets anniversaries, doesn't appreciate wife 10

(xi) Domineering, possessive 9

(xip Childishness, fussiness, helplessness 9

(xiii) Drinking, gambling, smoking 8

(xiv) Jealousy 8

(xv) Won't entertain wife, take her out, converse 7

The contrast in the faults found in the opposite sex is not so
marked as was the case with the qualities sought; but it is worth
remarking that in the faults named by 10 per cent or more of the men,
only one refers to the professional skills of the wife, and the remainder
to her character; whereas, in the women's corresponding list at least
three refer to domestic deficiencies on the part of the husband —
laziness, untidiness and meanness with money. Somewhat over-
simplifying the picture, one might say that in English marriage
character makes for the woman's happiness and the man's un-
happiness; and domestic behaviour and skills excite the man's
approval and (to a lesser extent) the woman's condemnation.

There are only three faults which bulk larger in the imagination
of the single than in the experience of the married; they are moral
faults, nagging, and taking one's wife (or husband) for granted.
Nine faults are the sad fruits of experience, which occur significantly
more often in the lists of the married than of the single; and it is
interesting that the majority of these are among the complaints men
make about their wives. This is perhaps a further indication that
English girls are more realistic in their approach to marriage than
English men. Single men don't envisage the complaint that women
may make themselves martyrs, and few suspect that they may be
over-anxious or bad housekeepers. Dislike of gossip increases with
marriage; so do complaints of extravagance, bad temper, lack of
intelligence and selfishness. The only specifically female complaint

129

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

against husbands which increases appreciably after marriage is
untidiness.

If rank order signifies the importance given to a complaint, the
following faults, which occur more frequently in first than in second
or third place, would seem to be of major importance: nagging,
domineering, selfishness, taking spouse for granted, jealousy, over-
anxiety, meanness with money. Lack of intelligence, extravagance
and bad housekeeping are more frequently in second or third place.
The remaining fauits are evenly distributed.

As with the qualities, the majority of faults are evenly distributed
among the complainers of different regions, ages, income levels and
social class ; but, in contrast to the qualities, where there is a signi-
ficant difference in distribution it is more often by social class than
by geographical region.

As far as these figures are any guide, the most unsatisfactory
English marriages are in the lower middle, upper working and lower
working classes. The upper middle class only stress the husband's
selfishness and lack of appreciation of the wife and the wife's
extravagance; and the middle classes the husband's selfishness and
laziness^ In the lower middle class most of the complaints seem to
be directed against the wife: she is said to be nagging and domineer-
ing, to let herself go and neglect her personal appearance; both
spouses complain of the temper and lack of intelligence in the other.
The upper working class is fuller of complaints than any other:
wives are nagging and domineering, extravagant and bad house-
keepers; husbands are selfish; and both sexes are bad-tempered
and lack intelligence. In the working and lower working classes
dislike of gossip and the naming of specific moral faults come to
the fore. Working class wives also complain of their husbands'
laziness, and both sexes stress the bad temper and lack of intelligence
of their spouses. The lower working class husbands complain that
their wives nag, are extravagant and bad housekeepers; the wives
complain that their husbands don't appreciate them. Although the
trend is not very marked, it does seem as though there is a shift
from complaints about the husband to complaints about the wife
as one descends the English social scale.

Each of the regions stresses one or two bad qualities ; but in most
cases the emphasis is slight. The North-East and North is emphatic
in its dislike of gossip, and also stresses extravagance. Selfishness is
very much complained of in the North- West, followed by temper.
The only complaint specially stressed in the Midlands is extravagance.
Extravagance is also emphasized in the South- West, but not so

130

MARRIAGE I: HOPES AND FEARS

strongly as is bad temper. London and the South-East concentrate
their complaints on domineering and selfishness. It is possibly
significant that the men of the North-East and North, who are so
appreciative of women's skills are also the most critical of women's
failings; and that in the North- West, where women have so much
influence,3 the emphasis falls on masculine faults.

A few complaints seem to vary consistently with income or age.
Thus, selfishness is most complained of by people with family in-
comes of under £8 a week, whereas nagging and lack of intelligence
are more blamed with incomes over that sum. Extravagance, perhaps
understandably, finds its chief spokesmen in the £8-£12 a week
income range, much the same range as complains of gossip. The
most prosperous complain of domineering and of the wife letting
herself go. It is the poorest and the richest and also the very young
(under 18) and the old (over 65) who are most specific about moral
faults. It is particularly the middle-aged (over 35) who complain of
domineering, selfishness, gossip and extravagance; the complaint
that wives let themselves go comes more from the husbands under
34. The complaints about the husband's laziness decrease steadily
with increasing age; it is mentioned by 12 per cent of those under
18, 10 per cent 18-24, 8 per cent 25-34, 9 per cent 35-44, 6 per cent
45-64, 1 per cent over 65. The figures are slight, but they do suggest
that there has been a marked change in the expectations of the
help which a husband should properly give in a household, with the
dividing line among those who were born in the first decade of this
century or earlier. Observation suggests that the young husband,
particularly of the middle classes, is expected to help a good deal
more in the household than was his father; and this situation may be
reflected in these figures.

There are two complaints which seem worth discussing in this
context, though neither of them ranks high in the lists; they are
both however referred to a great deal in the answers to the questions :
What makes for the success or failure of a marriage? These are
financial and sexual difficulties.

By financial difficulties I do not mean absolute poverty, but the
distribution of money within the family, typically the amount of
his wages or salary which the husband hands over to the wife. These
complaints are somewhat concentrated among women in the
Southern regions; and although I cannot substantiate this from the
tables, it does appear that there is a difference in pattern between the
Southern and Northern (particularly North-Western) regions in
the working classes. In the North it would seem that not infrequently

131

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

the husband hands over his unopened pay packet to his wife, who
then gives him back a portion for his private expenses ; in the South
it seems customary for the husband to 'give' a portion of his wages
to his wife for all household expenses and to keep the remainder for
himself. The relevant questions were unfortunately not asked; but
a number of inferences suggest that in the North, where the domestic
skills of women are highly esteemed, budgeting has an important
place among these skills.

The complaints follow a fairly typical pattern. They give out the
housekeeping money as if it were a gift' (a 54-year-old middle class
wife from Weston-super-Mare) ; Treat their wives as paid house-
keepers. Not let his wife know how much money he has' (a 30-year-
old wife from Wigan); 'Meanness or rather hard over money matters.
This refers to my husband' (a 49-year-old working class wife from
Bury St. Edmunds); 'Refuse to acknowledge right of woman having
little of his money to call her own' (a 34-year-old lower middle class
widow from North London); 'Spending too much on cigarettes,
betting and the "local" when the wife needs it more for the home
and the children' (a 29-year-old lower middle class wife from
Bromley); They never want to allow a woman "pocket money'"
(a 35-year-old working class wife from Bishops Stortford, Herts.);
'Unequal division of income especially in times of rising prices for
weekly necessities' (a 49-year-old professional woman, divorced,
from Chesterfield); They do not understand high cost of living.
They do not go shopping with their wives to find out where money
goes to' (a 30-year-old Birmingham wife); 'Most of them do not
disclose how much salary they have. It should be a partnership' (a
30-year-old wife from the Birmingham district); 'Many men
deliberately keep wives short of money on pretense of saving for
old age, but nothing makes a woman age quicker than having to
scrape and do without when children are young' (a 56-year-old
middle class woman from Birmingham); 'Seeing husband indulge,
while wife has to stint and scrape to make housekeeping money do'
(a 52-year-old middle class wife from South Harrow) ; 'I can have
all my husband has and he can always rely on me for help of any sort,
that I think is love' (a 59-year-old working class woman from
Rochdale, Lanes.); 'Each to his own task, the man for wages, the
woman for "exchequer" work' (a 38-year-old 'labouring class' man
from Salford, Lanes.).

The sexual difficulties centre around the wife's unwillingness for
intercourse when her husband desires it. The men usually describe
this in a single word — coldness or frigidity— but the actual phrases

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MARRIAGE I: HOPES AND FEARS

employed have revealing implications. Thus, a 39-year-old husband
from Eastbourne: 'Excuse of tiredness when husband desires sex
privilege'4 'Complaining she has pains at bedtime' (a working class
husband from Lancashire, aged 37); 'Reasonable sexual intercourse
(approximately once or twice weekly)';5 (a 49-year old middle class
separated man from Eastbourne).

^Most of the complaints about sexual difficulties come from the
wives. A 47-year-old lower middle class woman from Shrewsbury
complains of husband's 'Brutality (claiming their "rights" when a
woman is ill or tired)'. A 29-year-old lower middle class wife from
Bromley: Treating their wives like servants instead of partners, and
being very selfish and demanding in sexual matters'. A 39-year-old
lower middle class wife from the Isle of Ely: To make love only
when they feel desire'. A 28-year-old working class wife from
Castleford, Yorks. 'Expect a woman to submit to love-making
because it is "their duty" whether they like it or not'.6 A 22-year-old
middle class wife from Hereford: Takes me for granted when it
comes to the physical side of marriage'.7 A separated mother of four,
aged 35, from Maidenhead who describes herself as 'A typical house-
wife of the Working Class' : 'Excessive sexual demands. A wife should
be entitled to say no if she wants to, and not be forced'. A 45-year-old
wife from Liverpool: Thinking their wives should like the sexual
part of married life as much as they do themselves'. A 33-year-old
middle class wife from Hove: Taking wives for granted. Wanting
intimacy without much love making first. Not troubling if wife is
sexually satisfied or not*.

As can be seen, a number of respondents use these questions for
autobiographical comment or for comment on their husbands or
wives. A few of the young men also achieve considerable epigram-
matic neatness. A 21-year-old working class bachelor from Stamford
defines the qualities of a wife: 'Good cook in kitchen. Little lady in
Parlour. Mistress in bedroom*. And a married hairdresser from
Fulham: 'Look after herself. Look after her children. Look after her
home.' A 25-year old Dagenham bachelor defines the faults of a
wife: 'A whore in the kitchen; a cook in bed'.

Most of the autobiographical comments are critical, though with
some of the men this does not exclude appreciation. Thus, a 25-
year-old Southern working man, now living in Liverpool, complains
of his wife :

Giving the family her rations and going without herself. Always

finding the odd copper for her husband's cigarettes (You going without)

Cold feet in bed.

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 34-year-old middle class husband from Eccles :

Too much self-sacrifice in favour of their homes, children and
husbands. Too much unhappiness when unable to 'keep up with*
neighbours and friends. A tendency to overcriticize husband's actions.

A 47-year-old divorced working class man from North- West
London:

Not known of other wives, only own nagging, coldhearted, untidy.

A 42-year-old working class Londoner :

Having made an analysis of my wife's faults only I cannot hold
judgment on others — House proud, No interest in any social functions
or evenings out. Failing these two I do not think there is any other
criticism to make.

A 25-year-old schoolmaster from the Midlands :

(I don't know much about other men's wives. These remarks apply to
mine). Lack of understanding. Drabness of spirit. Lack of 'joie de vivre.'
Mulishness.

A hairdresser from Fulham :

If upset she brings up old sores of 25 and 30 years ago. She saves
goods for the future, when needed they are useless. She puts things
away and never knows where to look for them after a certain lapse of
time.

Women are inclined to be more specific, and (I have the impres-
sion) more full of complaints about their husbands. A 46-year-old
working class wife from Bishop's Castle, Shropshire :

My husband not generous with money. Prefers billiard room and pub,

Unreasonable quick temper.

A 31 -year-old working class wife from a village near Tamworth,
Staffs:

They still hang on to their bachelor day liberties. They go out to work
and so (they say) are entitled to all the freedom they need, heedless of
how things are at home. They take too much for granted.

A 43-year-old working class wife from Hounslow:

Putting their mothers before their wives. Making up to other wives
and expecting their own wives to be so loyal. Not being interested in
planning any pleasure for wife and taking her too much for granted.

A 35-year-old working class wife from Barnsley:

Dilatoriness. Married life seems to have made my husband forget
how to enjoy himself and give me a good time. After gazing at some
venus like figure in the Sunday paper my husband will insist on telling
me I am getting fat forgetting of course that am nearing middle age and
have had a family.

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MARRIAGE I: HOPES AND FEARS

A 28-year-old working class woman from Sheffield;

Speaking from personal experience a great disinclination to do
essential odd jobs. When being asked to do same, giving the stock
answer 'Don't Nag\ Arriving home late from work, thereby spoiling
nice meals (Though I admit this is often not his fault.)

A 27-year-old working class wife from Cornwall:
My own is selfish, Doesn't help at all, smokes and drinks.

A 48-year-old 'wife of an employer' in Canterbury:

Giving the business too much time. Trying to turn me into a Methodi-
cal, systematic Unit. Crunching hard sweets in bed.

A 41 -year-old working class wife from West Bromwich:

They are always right or think they are (so let them think it). If you
ask them to do a job they are just going to do something else. Work
(my husband seems to work so many hours).

A 53-year-old woman from the centre of England who says :

I have never been married but my four children do not know this
and never will if I can help it. Read the papers and be annoyed if you
say one word. Sleep as soon as Sunday dinner is finished. Try to make
you think they don't hear you speak when you know they must do.

A 28-year-old working class wife from Enfield:

Afraid of being thought a cissy (mine hates people to know he helps
at all in the house. Wont push pram). Some neglect their jobs as father.
Leave their wives most evenings to go out to enjoy themselves.

Occasionally these depressing pictures are lightened by a husband
or wife using the opportunity of the anonymous questionnaire not
to denigrate but to praise their partner. Thus a 35-year-old Hudders-
field man:

[qualities of wife?] Maternal Instinct Towards Children.
Cooking With Materials and Not a Tin Opener.
Cleanliness and Administration of the House.

[faults?] It Depends on the Wife. I Perhaps Could Find Lots of Faults
with Somebody Else's Wife, But For My Own, She Does a Good Job
of Work, Faultless.

A 20-year-old middle class husband from Dinkley, Lanes. :

[qualities of wife?] Devotion and fidelity.

Trust in her husband.

Sensible house sense and motherhood. Cook.

[faults?] Apart from cold feet in bed I have never been able to find
fault with my wife.

A 33-year-old working class husband from Heanor, Derby:

The one and only fault I have with my wife is, she does not take care
of herself when she is ill.

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 43-year-old upper working class wife from Enfield:

[qualities of husband ?] To be able to meet the family budget.

To be as interested in the family as the Mother is.

To be a friend as well as a lover.

[faulis?] If a wife complains or grumbles on rare occasions to use
that awful word dont nag.

Mine is not too bad I can not name three faults (don't tell him).

A 58-year-old wife from Wolverhampton :

[qualities of husband?] To be a good husband, To be a Good father
and Provide a good home. He has done all three, given my son a good
education and he is a very good man to live with.

[faults?] Working when he should be resting. Evenings.

Worrying about getting up early for work.

Cross if tea isn't ready when he comes in but he soon gets over it.

A 46-year-old working class wife from Hayes :

[faults of husband?] lack of understanding (in men whom I have met)
I am afraid I can say little to this ? as my husband is a good man and
I have no complaint to make.

NOTES TO CHAPTER NINE

1. Since three qualities were demanded, the base line is 300 per cent, or rather
291 per cent; since 3 per cent, mostly those under 18, did not answer this question.

2. See also Chapter Fifteen, p. 302.

3. See Chapter Fifteen.

4. 'Privilege' seems to be a most important concept m English thought. See especially
Chapter Twelve.

5. No direct questions were asked on frequency of intercourse or similar concrete
sexual questions. Quite a few individuals, however, volunteered such information.
No informant v,as more demanding than the one quoted above; the minimum advo-
cated is once a month, 'otherwise the wife will get suspicious'. A few middle class
respondents describe in detail the abandon they would wish from their wives: a
38-year-old husband from Richmond, Yorks: 'lack of reticence during intimacy and
ability to indicate desires'; a 45-year-old man from Walhngton, Surrey: 'No inhibitions
whatever re sex, and a willingness to enter into all bedroom games, and use freely
all the words her husband wants her to.' Some respondents used these questions to
detail their erotic fantasies.

6. This woman names as first quality in a husband: 'Use restraint in the physical
side of marriage.*

7. This woman names as a quality in a husband: To know when his wife is tired
and does not want to be made love to.'

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CHAPTER TEN

MARRIAGE II: EXPERIENCE

(NOTE: 772/5- chapter is founded entirely on the answers
of respondents who are or have been married)

ENGLISH HUSBANDS AND wives are agreed that there are about a
dozen factors whose presence makes for the happiness, and whose
absence for the unhappiness, of marriage. Men and women vary
somewhat in the weight they give to the different factors; and in a
great many cases the presence or absence of a factor are quite
differently esteemed. Thus, for 15 per cent children make for a
happy marriage; no children is only considered the cause of an
unhappy marriage by 4 per cent. Conversely, not having a house of
one's own or living with in-laws is named by 21 per cent as a reason
for a wrecked marriage ; only 6 per cent name a house of one's ov/n
as a factor in a happy marriage.

The factors mentioned besides these two are give-and-take
(sharing 50-50), understanding, love, mutual trust, equanimity,
sexual compatibility, comradeship, a decent income, mutual interests,
happy home life and no money difficulties; their converse are
selfishness, neglect, lack of love, lack of trust, bad temper, incom-
patibility, conflicting personalities, poverty, outside interests, bad
housekeeping, and disagreements about money. Two factors are
named with some frequency which make for unhappiness in marriage,
which have no direct converse in a happy marriage; they are drink
and infidelity. Mutual help (the husband helping in the house and
the wife with the accounts, for example) is mentioned as a component
in a happy marriage ; but the absence of this practice is not parti-
cularly noted.

A certain number of other factors were mentioned by such small
groups that they do not seem to need any discussion. Marriage in
the same class or religious or national group is mentioned almost
exclusively by members of the upper middle class as a cause for
happiness, and mixed class or religion as a cause for unhappiness.
Agreement on the number and education of children finds slight
mention as a cause for marital happiness; disagreement on this
subject, too many children, or one partner wanting children and
the other not finds a few more advocates as causes of unhappiness.
Going out together, or conversely no outside interests or boredom

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

find occasional mentions. Two or three per cent mention religious
principles, the spouse maintaining his or her appearance or smartness,
and the absence of a boss in the family as factors making for a happy
marriage; too hasty a marriage is mentioned, particularly by the
divorced and the most prosperous, as a reason for subsequent
misery.

The gross totals and ranking given to the factors are as follows.
Nearly all respondents listed two or more causes for marital happi-
ness or unhappiness, the women being consistently more voluble
than the men; positive factors have a base line of 251 per cent,
negative 229 per cent. Less than one married person in fifty refused
to answer this question; it is a subject on which nearly everybody
has views which they are most willing to propound.1

Making for a happy marriage

Give-and-take 39 per cent

Understanding 35 „

Love 24 ,,

Equanimity 24 ,, ,,

Mutual trust 23 „ „

Comradeship 15 ,, ,,

Children 15 „ „

Shared interests 13 ,, „

Sexual compatibility 11 „ „

Financial security 30 „ ,,

Happy home life 8 „ „

House of one's own 6 ,, „

No money difficulties 5 „ „

Mutual help 4 „

Making for a wrecked mat riage

Lack of trust 33 per cent

Selfishness, no give-and-take 28 „ „

No house of one's own 21

Temper 20

Sexual incompatibility 1 8

Poverty 16 >} ,'

Neglect 15

Infidelity 14 Jt "
Drunkenness "

Conflicting personalities

Money disagreements 8

Each going own way 8

Lack of affection 6

No children 4

Bad management of home 3

Men and women vary slightly, and in a pattern which is now
familiar, in the importance they give to these different factors;.
Women stress the importance for a happy marriage of good temper

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MARRIAGE II: EXPERIENCE

and companionship, and, to a lesser extent, give-and-take, under-
standing and love; men put more value on sexual compatibility, a
decent income, and, most markedly, children. As causes of unhappy
marriages women emphasize bad temper, neglect, and, to a lesser
extent money disagreements ; men stress not having a house of one's
own, poverty, and incompatibility. Once again, we find the English
woman's emphasis on the overwhelming importance of character;
whereas for men concrete circumstances play a major role.

It seems understandable that the divorced or separated should
put more emphasis than the married on sexual compatibility and
understanding as causes for marital happiness; and infidelity, lack
of sexual compatibility and too hasty marriages as the chief causes
for marital unhappiness. Those who remain married put more
emphasis on temper, selfishness and outside interests for unhappi-
ness, and good temper, give-and-take and love for a happy marriage.

There is remarkably little difference in the emphasis placed by
the middle class and the working class on the importance of the
various factors which make for marital success or failure. The other
classes, however, all present idiosyncratic patterns of over- and under-
emphasis which provide something like a synoptic picture of the
differential components of English marriages.

Thus for the members of the upper middle class, sexual compati-
bility and mutual interests are the most stressed positive factors,
followed by a decent income, love and understanding; mutual help
is not even mentioned, and having a house of one's own and give-
and-take are rated low. Sexual incompatibility, selfishness, lack of
trust, temper and sharing a house are much mentioned as causes
for marital unhappiness; but lack of affection is little regarded;
and monejr quarrels, neglect, and conflicting personalities are
relatively seldom mentioned.

In the lower middle class good temper and mutual interests are
most heavily stressed, followed by mutual trust, sexual compati-
bility and children; understanding is less valued and so are mutual
help. The most important causes of unhappy marriage in this class
can all be expressed negatively : lack of trust, lack of love, lack of
money, no mutual interests, sexual incompatibility; too many
outside interests is a relatively uncommon complaint.

In the upper working class understanding is given pride of place
when the factors making for a happy marriage are considered ; this
is followed by love, sexual compatibility, give-and-take and mutual
trust; in this class comradeship plays a significantly small role, and
so do mutual interests. Neglect plays a major role in unhappy

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

marriages, together with infidelity, lack of trust, lack of love and
no mutual interests.

The lower working class only stress three positive factors, but
these are all of major importance for them: mutual help, children
and good temper. They pay little attention to sharing a house,
love, sexual compatibility, absence of money differences, give-and-
take, or mutual trust. They also concentrate heavily on four negative
factors: drink, no children, neglect, and lack of love; infidelity,
sexual incompatibility, poverty, living with in-laws, selfishness, lack
of trust, temper and too many outside interests are all reckoned
relatively low.

Drink and infidelity are almost entirely problems of the poor and
the old. Of the positive factors the poor most stress good temper,
love, and give-and-take. The prosperous (over £12 a week) make
much of sexual compatibility and incompatibility; and the people
with the highest incomes (over £15 a week) are also the people most
pre-occupied with financial matters — the absence of debts or
extravagance. The more prosperous also consider the presence of
children important.

Children and a decent income are the factors which the early
middle-aged (35-44) think particularly important for a happy
marriage; and they find poverty and too many outside interests
the most potent negative factors. For the younger married people
love, understanding and give-and-take rank highest positively, and
sexual incompatibility and lack of trust negatively.

With the partial exception of the rural South- West, the regional
variations are slight. In London and the South-East drink and bad
house-keeping play very little role; in the Midlands drink is an
important negative factor, as mutual trust is an important positive
factor. The people in the Midlands pay little attention to poverty
or selfishness. Both Northern regions stress the importance of a
happy home life; the North-East and North also values highly give-
and-take, and finds too many outside interests an important negative
factor. This region mentions relatively little either love or bad temper;
and in the North- West comparatively little importance is attached
to a decent income. The South- West stresses the importance of
love, understanding and mutual interests on the positive side and
lack of trust on the negative; compared with the rest of the country
they pay little attention to give-and-take and conflicting personalities.
The inhabitants of small towns emphasize the importance of mutual
interests and infidelity; in the metropolises comradeship is the most
stressed positive, poverty the most stressed negative factor.

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MARRIAGE II! EXPERIENCE

A great number—perhaps the majority— of the respondents
answered these questions autobiographically. Inevitably, there is a
great deal of repetition in these answers, but a certain number are
so poignant, or so heart-warming, that they seem worth reproducing
for their intrinsic interest.

The following are examples of unhappy marriages:

A 66-year-old working-class man from Hebburn, Durham:

In my wife's case — careless spending and domineering. I was the one
who always gave way until I had reached the limit— then I became hard
as H unfortunately for my youngsters whom I loved.

A 33-year-old divorced school teacher from E. Yorkshire:

The easiest way to wreck a marriage is for the man to let the wife
provide the income, run the home, bring up the child, and nag her all
the time. I know — I've had it.

A 42-year-old working class man from Manchester:

Finding out you are unsuited when it is too late, such as after a child
is born. Couples tolerate each other because they love the child or
children. . . . Many couples have been called a happy couple, simply
because people don't know what happens between them in private,
and actually they'd be glad to part.

A 31 -year-old agricultural labourer from a village near Malvern:
(to much nagging) my wife says I'm always nagging her and is always
going to leave me. I tell her she's free to go, and that I can soon get
a housekeeper if she goes.

A 54-year-old Leeds working class man:

Believing untruths as in my case, my wife was a widow with a child,
whom I love as my own, until she accused me of a serious offence but
not until 3 years before she had got to the age of going out with young
men. Although at the time she was sleeping in the same room as her
grandmother. We separated after 7 years and I have lived alone.
Bothering with no one of that sex since.

A 22-year-old middle class housewife from Essex :

Been cruel, bad tempered, drinking, mean with money, demanding
too much, i.e. not giving enough (you see it has happened to me).

A 48-year-old woman from Birkenhead:

Losing interest in each other, selfishness, heartlessness. Here I think
I'd better explain more fully. If a husband tells his wife there is nothing
in having a baby when she is having her first, and ends it by saying
women make themselves invalids out of the most natural of aU things,
and refuse share the little fears and ridicules her when she wants most

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

of all to show off the little things that are needed for baby when it comes.
Well love just goes and it never returns and without love marriage is
an existance.

A 52-year-old working class woman from Manchester :

For myself, I married a very hasty-tempered boy, very argumentative
and dominating, but at times, the kindest hearted person that ever was
bom. In 30 years I've hidden a lot of heartbreak behind a smiling face.
I've had few friends and have always given people to understand my
Husband is one of the best. Had we both been of the same nature our
marriage would not have lasted more than a week.

A 45-year-old upper working class woman from Folkestone :

In my case my husband is lazy. He wont work and keep my little boy
and myself and because I work and keep my husband he left us. He was
very plausible but underneath it all he was dishonest and untruthful
and disloyal and selfish. Since my baby was 10 weeks old Ive worked
for us both.
We don't know where he is, WE DON'T CARE.

A 28-year-old woman from North London:

I could not say what makes for a happy marriage as mine is not happy
and never has been and never will be as I have a bad husband.

A Sutton Coldfield man aged 731 :

In my case (which nearly became a wreck) leaving rny wife alone
(when we were married first) in the home and stopping out drinking all
hours, but seeing that our happiness was at stake luckily gave it all up
and went home and spent the hours at home and I have since become
a home bird.

A 59-year-old working class man from Penge:

Well I upset my home when I joined the British Legion and the
Discharged Soldiers Federation then I was out almost every night as
I was a good darts player I was picked to play too often. Also held many
positions on the Committees. Gave it up three years ago. [for a happy
marriage?] 4be equal' help to wash and dry dinner plates etc. but do
not spoil them that is the wife, take her out with you occasionally where
you know she will be happy.

The happily married have a slight tendency to give instructions
from their own experience. Thus, a 27-year-old husband from
Edlington:

What makes for a happy marriage is 'Any two persons with the same

temperament as my wife and myself. Accept each other at face value.

Do not pry into each others past. Never be afraid to discuss problems

of any nature. Dont be afraid to put your arm round your wife's shoulder

in public'.

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MARRIAGE II: EXPERIENCE

A 55-year-old working class man from Beeston, Notts:

Firstly you both must have no secrets, and if any affairs do come
along be straightforward and have a round table talk. ... If you or
your wife do have any flirtatuse affairs do keep each other fully informed,
it has proved in our case a happy marriage in our not having any secrets.

A 62-year-old 'common worker' from East Ham :

Myself I am lucky, my old Dutch has been through all my adversitys
an Angel without Wings. My two sons nearing 40 years old age (Still
Single).

A 37-year-old middle class man from a village near Devizes :

A man and wife do not love each other when they are married first,
this comes with being married to each other in years and being com-
pletely open and above board with each other and by courting each
other all the time and not being ashamed to sneak a kiss. . . . Allow
the wife the same scope as you like yourself let her know how much a
week you get.

A 45-year-old coal miner from a village near Rotherham, Yorks:

What makes for a happy marriage is All that made our courting days

pleasant. I find they are still life's main pleasure and raising a family etc.

A 30-year-old working class wife from Westoning, Beds :

Make allowance for hubby's hobbies. When it is too cold outside in
the shed, let him play with his pliers and spanners etc. in the living room.
Don't nag. Let him come and go without asking too many questions.
Trust your husband and he will never betray your trust.

A 28-year-old middle class wife from Tiverton:

You get in a rut at times, everyone does regardless of what they say.
Most people think when they get married I've got him or her, and that's
that, but it's all wrong. After marriage I think it's harder to keep a man
than before because really you should try to be as attractive as the day
he married you and even with children. Always have his meals ready,
nice clean house and home, listen to all his troubles about what a
horrid day he's had, even if yours has been dreadful, a housewife can
stop and rest for half an hour, but a man can't. Above all, look clean
and attractive yourself.

In the three quotations which follow, three husbands of different
generations give remarkably succinct pictures of happy married
life.

A 62-year-old man from Cannock:

Well each going 50 ; 50 in everything we have been married 38 years
if my wife wants anything she has it I don't grumble, if I want anything
I have it she doesn't grumble, we have always had little tifs but we get
over them,

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 42-year-old working class husband from London, S.E. :

When you are out of work with a couple of youngsters, been trying
hard to find some, and when you reach home, the woman greets you
with a smile, and says, how are your poor old feet. No recriminations
for having nothing but hope for the following day. (Thats how a woman
should be).

A 24-year-old 'ordinary working class' husband from Newcastle:
A Loving Husband. A nice Home, Loving wife to look after him and
the Husband who comes from work and puts his pay packet on the table
and kisses his wife and says Darling I love you.

Having to share a house, and interference from in-laws, is one
of the causes most frequently given for the wreck of a marriage.
In reading through the questionnaires, I had noted that, with remark-
able frequency, the people who made such complaints were in fact
living with their own parents; and it seems that, in England, the
marriage of a child turns the parents almost automatically into
in-laws.

It consequently seemed worth while making a correlation between
the causes listed for success and failure in marriage and sharing
a house with one's own parents. Twelve per cent of the married
sample live in the same house as their father, and 14 per cent in
the same house as their mother; these of course are not entirely
separate groups, as some may have both parents living with them.
Nevertheless, the figures do suggest that it is the presence of a
mother or mother-in-law which is the disturbing factor, as has
always been maintained in the traditional music hall joke. When
the house is shared with the father, no house of one's own is listed
fourth in the causes for a wrecked marriage, and having a house of
one's own third as a reason for a happy marriage. When the house is
shared with the mother, on the other hand, sharing a house is
listed first as cause for an unhappy marriage (though four other
defects have the same percentage); and having a house of one's
own is listed first as a factor making for a happy marriage. The
percentage differences are slight, but would seem to be significant;
the pattern of English life can accommodate two men, but not two
women, in the same household.

One of the biggest surprises which I received from this investigation
was the very small role accorded to infidelity as a cause for marital
unhappiness. Fidelity was rated fairly high as a desirable character-
istic in a spouse, particularly by men; but infidelity was eighth in the
list of factors wrecking a marriage, only mentioned by 14 per cent.
In my own experience in the rural South and South- West, it had

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MARRIAGE II: EXPERIENCE

seemed to me that people were very markedly preoccupied with
jealousy and suspicions of sexual straying, often on what seemed to
me the most tenuous and improbable grounds; but in view of the
results of this research, I think maybe what I took for jealousy was
a sort of bitter marital game not taken really seriously; the scenes
provoked would perhaps be described as 'nagging' and 'lack of
trust' and 'temper' rather than infidelity.

It was the memory of these scenes and gossip which prompted
me to ask the question of all my married male respondents 'If a
husband finds his wife having an affair with another man, what should
he do?'; for the female correspondents the sexes in the question
were suitably transposed.

This is a question which nearly all the respondents took seriously
and answered at length; only 2 per cent of the men and 1 per cent
of the women refused to answer, and these silent people were con-
centrated in the elderly. Many of the respondents advocated more
than one course; consequently the base line for the percentages
is 163 per cent. Women were somewhat more voluble than men
(once again); they have 170 per cent of answers, the men 158 per cent.

Less than a third of the men and barely a sixth of the women
consider that infidelity should automatically terminate the marriage;
and only a very small group contemplate violence. The replies
admirably illustrate that aspect of English behaviour which is called
'civilized' by those who admire, and 'cold' or 'unemotional' by
those who dislike it. A sense of fairness and a most lively conscience
are, for the majority, far stronger than passion, either passionate
love or passionate jealousy. There is however the interesting correla-
tion that those who consider sexual love 'very important' in marriage
are much more likely to consider terminating the marriage if the
spouse is discovered to be unfaithful than those who consider it
'fairly important'.

Although the general pattern for husbands and wives is fairly
similar, the sexes differ in the emphasis they place on different
solutions and to a certain extent in their phraseology. The course
most frequently advocated by both men and women is talking the
matter over with the erring spouse; and in second place they recom-
mend finding out what ego has done to make his or her partner
stray. Men state this directly more often than women; women tend
to assume that the reason for their husband straying is that they
have lost their physical attractions, and that they can win him back
by smartening themselves up. It would be interesting to know
whether this rather pathetic belief that an erring husband can be

145

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Figure XXV
Question 48 by Question 59

48. In marriage do you think sexual love is very important?

59. If a husband finds his wife having an affair with another man, what should he
do?

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140

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125

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159

Figure XXV
Question 48 by Question 59

48. In marriage do you think sexual love is very important?

59. If a wife finds her husband having an affair with another woman, what should
she do ?

Question 48

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Question 59

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176

Fairly important

173

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147

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—

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144

Total

170

146

MARRIAGE II! EXPERIENCE

reclaimed by a new hair-do and smarter clothes has any foundation
in fact or experience, or whether it be entirely the product of skilful
advertisements and the women's magazines which cany them. Very
few men indeed believe that improving their own appearance would
be of any help.

The rank ord6r of the solutions offered is as follows:

Men %

Talk it over with wife 24

Examine self 20

Separation 18

Divorce as last resort 13

Divorce 12

Separation as last resort 12

Try to reconcile 10

Physical violence on other man 9

Forgiveness 8

Verbal reproaches to wife 7

Preserve marriage 6

Physical violence on wife 5

Verbal reproaches to other man 3

Ignore passing fancy 3

Do not know 3

Do likewise 1

Do nothing 1

Make self more attractive 1

Women %

Talk it over with husband 29

Make self more attractive 22

Try to reconcile 15

Examine self 14

Separation as last resort 1 1

Divorce as last resort 10

Separation 9

Forgiveness 9

Do nothing 9
Verbal reproaches to other woman 7

Preserve marriage 7

Verbal reproaches to husband 6

Ignore passing fancy 6

Divorce 5

Do likewise 3

Do not know 3

Have innocent good time 1

Physical violence on other woman 1

The categories divorce or separation as 'last resort' are in all cases
second choices, to be adopted if the first suggestion for preserving
the marriage fails.

Discussion, talking it over with the other spouse, is the most
popular of all solutions in all branches of the community except
the lower working class; it has somewhat more numerous advocates
among the young, under 34, people with incomes under £12 a week,
and markedly in the upper working class.

Self-examination, is, as has been noted, particularly popular with
male respondents. It is mentioned most often by people between
the ages of 25 to 44, in the upper middle, upper working and lower
working classes. It finds relatively few advocates in the Midlands,
among the very young or the old and the poor. It is especially among
the more prosperous and socially successful men that this feeling
of responsibility is most highly developed. Usually the phraseology
is fairly stereotyped; but this seems to be such an idiosyncratic
reaction as to be worth illustrating at some little length.

A 30-year-old middle class man from Worksop:

First and foremost he should discover what it is in himself that has
turned his wife away from him and try to put it right. He should then
confront first wife and then lover and thrash it all out.

147

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 27-year-old Doncaster man :

He can either laugh or cry, because the blame rests on his own head.
If he gave his wife proper care and attention and praised her good
points she would not go astray. My wife doesn't feel like going else-
where after I've done with her.

A 46-year-old working class man from Kentish town :

If he, himself, is free from guilt, he should find out why she has gone
adrift. If he is to blame there is not much he can do about it.

A 25-year-old working class man from Portsmouth:

Try to find out where he failed. To keep his wife content put that
right and win her back.

A 41-year-old middle class man from Barking:

Be very considerate, at first look for own faults and try to help her.
It may be a very difficult phase for her,

A 66-year-old working class man from Hebburn, Durham:

Consider whether or not he is free from blame. Consider (well) if
they have kiddies.

A number of women who employ this argument use the metaphor
of looking in a mirror. Apparently for many English women the
mirror tells the unpleasant truths about character and behaviour as
well as appearance.

Thus, a 36-year-old middle class wife from Newcastle-on-Tyne:
Look in a mirror — mentally and otherwise.

A remarried middle class wife from Ely, aged 29 :

Take a good look at herself in the mirror! Then find out if possible
what the attraction to the other woman is — and develope that quality
herself. Above all do not 'nag or rave' at him. If possible make him a
little jealous also.

A 26-year-old middle class wife from a village near Rugby:

Firstly — look into her mirror, and then answer one question. If he
loved her once, why does he now seek another woman ? A woman loses
her husband generally through her own neglect.

A 38-year-old working class woman from Sunderland, Durham:

I suggest she stands in front of the mirror and examines her reflection
in detail, then she should examine her conscience carefully, and finally
review her attitude towards her husband. Inevitably she will find the
fault lies within herself and as soon as she remedies it, her husband's
affair will cease.

148

MARRIAGE IT. EXPERIENCE

A 25-year-old working class wife from Bristol:

If she loves her husband she should find out what is lacking in herself
and endeavour to rectify it, but if he is a blaggard to her I would say
that she is lucky to have found sufficient evidence for divorcing him.

A divorced working class woman from Batley, Yorks:

In my own case I went to see the other woman and pleaded with her
for the sake of my two babies who were only 6 months old. I went
back through my own marriage to see where I had gone wrong and
found that we mustn't have been physically suited.

A 42-year-old 'middle working class* wife from Peterborough:

I suppose the first thing to do would be to try and find the reason why
and if she finds herself to blame remedy it.

A 35-year-old widow from Reigate:

Find out where she may be at fault herself make herself as attractive
as possible, then go out as much as possible with her best girl friend.
Meanwhile living as sweet as possible to her husband, and treating his
affair with amused lenience.

This widow's advice shades into the woman's panacea of making
oneself more attractive. The belief in the efficacy of this behaviour
is strongest among the younger people in the middle, lower middle
and upper working classes, especially in the South-West and North-
West in medium and small towns. It is relatively little advocated by
the elderly, the most prosperous and lower working class; and it
has fewer advocates in the metropolises. For some reason, which I
confess to finding obscure, a permanent wave is considered parti-
cularly efficacious in bringing a straying husband back to the
fold.

A 30-year-old woman from St. Helens, Lanes:

First of all discuss it calmly with him, then do nothing but wait.
Let the affair die a natural death and the man will return. In the mean-
time she can buy some new clothes and have her hair permed, make
herself as attractive as she can. Spend more on herself than on the house.

A 33-year-old middle class wife from Shepperton:

1st. New clothes, undies, hair styles: 2nd. Start going out, make
company if possible (see he knows it) be hard to get, with husband.
If possible go away for a spell leaving him with children to care for
(only short time perhaps a sick mum?) Come back all fresh and charm-
ing. Try not to show grief, or to discuss other woman. When he cannot
see her, do not let him faU back on you ! If he finally really loves other
wench — retire as gracefully as you can, indulging in grief only when
alone.

149

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 42-year-old working class wife from Wembley :

Ignore it, and make herself and home attractive enough to compete
with and beat the other one. Actually it happened to me, and I wrote
to the other woman, she was miles away (He met her in the Forces).
Told my husband to choose. It all finished, and has never been mentioned
since.

A 'struggling middle class' wife from Sheffield:

Firstly try to keep it to yourself, then have a sort of competition with
the other woman, by going to unusual lengths to improve your appear-
ance, and make kindly remarks about the husband, and treat him as if
you were courting again.

The beauty treatment ploy is a specifically feminine gambit to
preserve the marriage. Both sexes also advocate reconciliation
without detailing the means by which this should be achieved, men
somewhat more than women, particularly the young people (under
34) hi the more prosperous middle and upper working classes
in the two Southern regions, especially in London and the small
villages. Another group, only slightly smaller, recommends pre-
serving the marriage for the sake of the children, though this does
not necessarily imply full reconciliation. This is not a solution which
recommends itself to any extent to the more prosperous or to members
of the upper middle class; and the under 24's barely mention it,
but relatively few of these have children. This course finds its most
numerous advocates in the upper working class.

A 50-year-old separated wife from London:

These days if there is a child or children one has to forgive and forget,
but when I came up against it, 22 years ago, I would do neither I turned
him out and have regretted it ever since.

A 48-year-old separated man from Hucknall, Notts :

Well it happened to me, as I had two dear children, I gave her another
chance, which I realize was wrong, but it happened again and we
separated.

A 38-year-old working class wife from near Bury St. Edmunds:

My husband has had affairs for the last 17 years. I have taken no
notice, because I have had children, but my advice to another woman
leave him then, when you are young. Not wait as I have done till my
children are older. Always quarelling.

A 25-year-old middle class man from Benfleet:

As in my personal experience, to try and keep the Family together
for the Childrens sake, and not to go all out for a divorce unless there
are no Children.

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MARRIAGE III EXPERIENCE

There seems to be more than a semantic difference between
reconciliation and forgiveness ; the latter implies both open acknow-
ledgement of the situation and generosity; the former does not neces-
sarily imply either. Forgiveness finds its advocates in every stratum
of the society, though they are slightly more numerous among the
young and in the middle class.

A 34-year-old middle class husband from Northolt:

Rather hard for me to answer. My wife had a child while I was over-
seas. I forgave her and we have been very happy.

A 29-year-old middle class man from Darlington, Durham:

To tell the true I would not know what I would do until it happened
to me. But a man who can forgive is in my opinion a real man.

A 24-year-old working class man from Newcastle:

I think a man should have a talk with her and try to make up. I think
a Husband who really loves his wife would do that. I think I would.

A 65-year-old working class man from Coalpool, Staffs :

It is best to be a better Man than the other, Tell her she has gone
far enough and that unless she stops the home and all belonging to it
must be broken up. That with all her faults you love her still, and that
all is forgiven.

A 63-year-old middle class man from Leicester:

Point out the risk of ruining both their lives, promise her a thrashing
if it continues, then take her into town, buy her a new frock, take her
to a good Hotel have a slap-up dinner, then on to a show to demonstrate
what a damned good husband she has, and promptly dismiss the affair
from my mind, and tell her so.

A 59-year-old divorced working class man from Leominster,
Herefordshire :

Pray to God in Heaven above to forgive her, as God, for Christs sake
forgave him (I've done this and IT PAYS,)

A 22-year-old middle class woman from Essex:

Some women may forgive, but I could never forgive I would feel he
didn't belong to me any more. You see it has happened to me and I
cant forgive.

A 36-year-old middle class woman from Halifax:

Well having had that experience during the war, in which it hurt very
much I forgave him and since we had our little boy things have been
different, but I shall never forget time heals all things.

There is a group of women whose forgiveness is modified by a
refusal to maintain or continue marital relations. I failed to make a

151

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

special category for these partial forgivers; but my impression is
that they are not numerous.

A 51-year-old wife from Morley:

I have never been put to the test, but I have always made it known
to my husband that should such an occasion arise our personal relations
would cease.

A 36-year-old woman from Shrewsbury:

If he is only infatuated and realizes he has made a mistake I think the
wife could forgive, as we all make mistakes once, but if the husband has
other affairs, I think they are better without them unless there are
children and then the wife has to consider them, because if parted, the
men don't always pay the maintenance money regular, then live with
them but as a lodger.

A 49-year-old woman from Gainsborough:

I should not mind so long as he allowed me a decent sum of money
to live on. I should refuse myself to share the same bed with him.

The indifference of this last respondent finds a number of echoes
from those who advocate ignoring the passing fancy and doing
absolutely nothing. These are predominantly solutions offered by
women of the upper middle and middle classes, with a slight concen-
tration in early middle age. They are not solutions which commend
themselves to the lower working class.

A lower middle class woman from Blackfield, Southampton:

I think it depends on the age mostly. If I had been in that position
when young I should simply have left my husband. But now I am 39,
I don't think I would take it so seriously.

A 34-year-old lower middle class wife from Rawmarsh, Yorks :

Depends on his age and time he's been married. If after 10 years
marriage leave him alone except to let him know you know about it.
Its usually a mild affair and it gives him a kick to feel he's still attractive.

A 47-year-old middle class woman from Newbury:

Ignore it and take into consideration that men like change but not
many break up their home and married life if they are fairly happy. I
cant speak from experience as have never suspected anything of this of
my husband, he is more interested in talking to men about mens
interests.

A 48-year-old married woman from Birkenhead :

I don't know what others would do, but I'd let him get on with it as
long as he didn't trouble me.

152

MARRIAGE El EXPERIENCE

A 36-year-old lower middle class woman from Weston-super-Mare :
Do as I did. Let him know that I know about it, then ignore it and
him. When he thought I didn't care, then he started worrying.

A 42-year-old lower middle class wife from Teignmouth:

This depends on the circumstances. If any other woman fancied my
husband she'd be welcome, as long as he provided for me and my
children properly. But if I loved him, I cannot imagine what I should do.

A 36-year-old upper working class man from Peckharn:

To my idea if it was in my case, I don't think I should do anything.
I should say that my wife was finding the other man more interesting
than me for the present and should let her carry on until the affair
fizzled out or otherwise developed into a real love affair. I do not
believe in putting on a false front to win her back.

A 38-year-old man from New Maiden, Surrey:

Nothing, if it fades out and she realizes that her husband, dull as he
may have seemed is the best after all, she will be a chastened and better
wife. If it doesn't fade out the husband certainly hasn't got what the other
man has, and he must accept the fact.

A 46-year-old working class man from Romford:

Shake his hand, because if husband isn't man enough to satisfies his
wife, then I should think the other man is doing him a favour, as long
as he doesn't take the wife away from you.

A small group of women recommend that the wife should take
advantage of the situation to have an innocent good time herself.
This suggestion finds no favour in the rural South- West, nor in the
upper middle class. Similarly the upper middle class has no advocates
for the suggestion that the other spouse should go and do likewise;
this is recommended by a scattering from all other classes and regions,
2 per cent of the population who seem to think the other's error
condones their own.

A 42-year-old wife from Billericay, Essex:

Completely ignore gossip, find another male companion and tell
husband and also introduce them, writing from experience, I have him
back and happier from his escapade.

A 42-year-old working class man from Leicester:
Have an affair with another woman if it suits him.

A 42-year-old middle class woman from East Dean, West Riding:
As I did, tell him if he can have an affair, so can I, and really mean it,
then they find why it hurts them when they find somebody wanting you
so they make it up again.

153

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 35-year-old working class woman from Stockton-on-Tees :

Try to say nothing, but this is very hard for a woman. Personally
when I was younger and married under five years I used to create a
scene and weep. Now I start an affair with another man, it upsets my
husband more than a scene.

Three per cent of the population state at some length that they
have no idea what they would do in such a situation; but this un-
certainty never seems to involve breaking the marriage. Thus, a
28-year-old wife from Sheffield:

I think this depends on her love for her husband and on the happiness
or otherwise of her married years. If this happened to me, I honestly
don't know what I should do, I know my life would be shattered.

A 39-year-old middle class man from Leicester:

FAINT— at least I should because it would be such a surprise that
she was interested in men.

A 27-year-old working class wife from Kingston-upon-Hull :

I cant imagine mine doing so because he's so critical of other women.
If it ever did happen I know in my case I'd never get him back because
she'd have to be something in the first place to come up to his standards.

A 39-year-old working class man from High Wycombe:

Very difficult to answer people's temperament vary. I detest, person-
ally, those intrigues and affairs. But should it happen to my family, I
hesitate as to whether I would walk out, talk to both or what! It could
happen in rare cases for a person to be happily married and then meet
The 'Dream Girl' or 'Dream Man*. Tough luck, then.

All the solutions so far discussed have the implicit or explicit
assumption that adultery, real or supposed, should not terminate
the marriage (if that can possibly be avoided) and does not justify
the wronged spouse in adopting violent and aggressive behaviour.
I think this can be described as the typical English response, cover-
ing as it does the views of more than half the men, and nearly three-
quarters of the women. Thirty per cent of the men and just half that
number of women advocated taking immediate legal steps to end
the marriage (a further 25 per cent of the men and 21 per cent of the
women contemplate this as a last resort if none of the devices
described above have been successful); and 14 per cent of the men
contemplate violence against the wife, or the lover, or both, but
only one woman in a hundred considers going for the other woman.

This typical gentleness or reasonableness is susceptible to a variety
of explanations or qualifications. It does seem fairly certain that an
English man or woman's 'honour' is no longer involved in the

154

MARRIAGE II : EXPERIENCE

chastity or fidelity of his or her spouse, as would appear to have beea
the case in the historical past, and still occurs in a number of societies
today. For the English majority 'honour' would appear to inhere
entirely in one's own character and behaviour; and, as has been
shown, there is at least as much tendency to blame oneself for a
spouse's dereliction as to blame or punish the offending spouse.

Secondly, I would suggest that such attitudes imply a relatively low
valuation of 'love' and a very high valuation of the institution of
marriage, a point which has already been previously documented.
It is interesting to note that there is practically no mention of what
might be called the ethical attitude to divorce, the feeling that it is
morally wrong to keep bound to one a partner who prefers another;
such an ethical attitude seems to be relatively common in the United
States, where 'love' is, apparently, very highly valued.

It is perhaps worth recalling in this context that 40 per cent of
the married sample stated that they had had *a real love affair'
outside marriage;2 as far as men are concerned this is as high a
number as admit, or advocate, experience before marriage, and for
women it is nearly twice as high. Although it cannot be directly
demonstrated from the figures available, I have the strong impression
that extra-marital sexual experience is considerably commoner in
England than pre-marital experience, although it still involves only
a minority of the population; that, in the greater number of cases,
both parties are married; and that the affairs are in most cases of
relatively little emotional importance.

There does remain however the minority whose tendency is to
react with violence, a small group who would use physical violence
or upbraidings, and the more considerable group who would call
in the resources of the law. My impression from reading the comments
of the men and women who advocate these courses is that sexual
jealousy is a comparatively uncommon emotion among the English;
where anger is felt and expressed in such a situation it is more likely
to be vindictiveness, a desire to hurt rather than a desire to avenge.

Those who threaten or consider violence are predominantly the
younger married men (under 34) with a very heavy concentration
in the lower working class, particularly from the Midlands. Such
courses have advocates in all groups of English society, but they
are markedly fewer in the middle class, among the most prosperous
and poorest and in the North-East and North.

A 38-year-old upper working class man from Farnham:
If she has been unfaithful— kill her. If she has not been unfaithful

seek a settlement. A clean break either way with husband or 'other

155

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Man'. I believe in divorce before infidelity occurs — but not after it
happens.

A 31-year-old working class man from Hull:

Regarding myself I would kill my wife as my whole life would be
shattered and I wouldn't want to live. I'm not being dramatic I'm
sincere.

A 30-year-old middle class man from Dinkley, Lanes :

Quite personally I should be inclined to take her life and suffer the
consequences. I would not be able to forget or forgive the wrong to
myself and children.

A 53-year-old working class man from Salford, Lanes:
If there are no children, kill her.

A 32-year-old remarried man from Leicester:

This is an unanswerable question. I was very nearly guilty of murder;
but I can assure you what happened was natural. It is not a question one
can answer.

A 31 -year-old divorced working class man from Greenwich:

Do as I did personally, give her a good hiding but unfortunately led
to the wrecking of my marriage and my wife now lives with the man I
caught her with 6 years ago.

A 65-year-old separated man from Rainham, Essex :

Like myself, try and point out where it will lead to and be fore-
bearing for a while and try to win her back, look into yourself and see if
you are to blame in any way, but not like me, take an axe and decide
"doing both in' if found together, lucky I did not, or I should not be
writing this.

A 22-year-old man from Walthamstow:

First he should kill the man and when the husband goes too the gallows
for the murder the wife will have the death of her husband on her mind
for the rest of her life also pays the penalty

A 37-year-old middle class man from a small town in Wiltshire:

Tip her up and pull down her knickers and spank her till it hurts her.
I found my wife just off to the pictures with another man I knew, this is
what I did to her. We had been married 3 years then. She is the best and
most lovable wife a man could have now.

A 51 -year-old working class man from Epsom:

Reason with her — Explain the wreckage she is liable to make both of
her own and his life, also see the man and reason with him. Personally
1 knocked 'seven bells' out of him, but it did no good.

156

MARRIAGE H: EXPERIENCE

A 43-year-old lower working class man from Gravesend:
Give his wife three children periods of 18 months.

A 36-year-old miner from Barnsby:

Take a good hold of himself and make sure he's not seeing things then
Bolt the doors, get hold of anything heavy lash the pair of them to
practically unconsciousness then inform the police.

Very few women advocate using violence, and not a single one
of my respondents imagined committing murder, which could
theoretically equalize the usual disparity in physical strength. A
28-year-old Cheltenham wife who describes herself as 'educated
working class' advises :

Hit him with something hard when he least expects it. Cook a jolly

good meal and eat it all in front of him.

A 43-year-old Croydon woman who describes her class as
Intellectual':

Threaten both of them with physical violence — I've tried it and it
worked, and advised it and it worked, (also tell husband other woman
boasts she has a lot of influence over him — this is a lie with grain of
truth and he recoils. Husband glad wife cares so much — other woman
gets scared she would not fair favourably if it got to a court case. She
slinks away — realises she is cause of large amount of aggravation.)

A 62-year-old middle class woman from Cottingley, Yorks. :

I dont Know but I think I should make it hot for both of them, no
woman would take my man without a fight, but my man never wanted
another woman, so I didn't have that trouble, my husband died, just
12 months ago.

Although there are so few female advocates for physical violence,
quite a number contemplate a 'scene*, either with the husband, or
more usually the other woman, where the violence would remain
on the verbal level. Some men also consider this technique. It is
particularly favoured by the lower middle and upper working
classes, by the middle aged and, once again, in the Midlands.

A 29-year-old working class woman from Bath:

In my own experience, play up holy moses, pack your bag & prepare
to leave him with the small kiddies, also threaten to go to see the other
woman. Unless he is utterly heartless — it usually works.

A 42-year-old middle class wife from London, N. W. :

I had just this problem to deal with once. After being nearly frantic
with worry — I decided to show him that he was making a fool of himself
— and no man likes to be thought a Fool — it worked.

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 36-year-old working class wife from Spondon, Derby:

Providing she has done nothing to cause it, she could get the other
woman and her husband together and talk it over, this can make them
both feel so guilty they would break it up. (This is from my own ex-
perience.)

A 28-year-old working class woman from Tiverton:

Well this may not sound good advice to you but it happened to me
whilst I was in hospital and I said I would more or less scratch the other
woman's eyes out when I got out and my husband Vvas delighted, and
has been the good husband ever since. I did fight for him by post but
that's all.

A 41-year-old working class woman from the North of England:
If she finds out before it is too late; before he becomes a bigamist as
mine did. She could talk things over with the other woman. Then they
can decide what to do with him themselves.

A 41-year-old divorced middle class man from Birmingham:

If it has been going on for any length of time there is nothing he can
do as they would stilTdo it. It happened to me and I approached the man
and appealed to him in a straightforward way to stop it as he was also
a married man. He said he would but continued it. My wife left home
to go with him and now they have parted and she has gone to her mother
in South Africa. She wants to come back but the eldest girl who looks
after the house will not have anything to do with her and says no.

A 27-year-old man from Bethnal Green who describes himself as
'ordinary working man in the street' :

Shake the other man by the hand for showing him the type of woman
his wife really is.

Finally, there are the people who would end the marriage legally,
by divorce or separation. People in the Midlands favour divorce
markedly more than those of any other region ; as far as this survey
is any guide, people of this region are somewhat freer and more
expressive in all aspects of sexual life than the inhabitants of the
rest of the country. The people of the South- West produce the fewest
advocates for legal remedies. The most prosperous and the members
of the upper middle class refer the most to legal proceedings, followed
by the lower working class; divorce is somewhat more favoured
by the middle aged, separation by the elderly, which probably
reflects the changing pattern of English legal practice, and the
availability of divorce for poor persons. As already stated, twice as
many men as women advocate so drastic a course.

158

MARRIAGE III EXPERIENCE

The comments and advice about such courses are mostly straight-
forward enough ; but many of them are remarkable for the bitterness
they illustrate. Many of these comments are autobiographical.

A 43-year-old working class man from Horsham:

If the husband had a little more sense than I had at the time he would
divorce her.

A 32-year-old remarried 'average type of working class man' from
Dorking:

Get himself free as soon as possible very few women go straight if
with another mans company. Personal experience had my former wife
return 4 times.

A 29-year-old man from Doncaster, W. Yorks, who describes
himself as a 'moderate scholar' :

He should kick her out. I should go insane with jealousy, probably
break my heart. Soft talk for a grown man. Just cannot bear to think
of it.

A 41-year-old working class miner from Ilkeston, Derby:

Divorce her. I have only ever had one girl in my life and I married her.
Never have I had intimate relations with any one else.

A 35-year-old lower working class man from Newent in Gloucester :
Well if it ever happened to me if my wife can find a better one than
me good luck to her I wouldn't do her in as I have told her but she could
go — I should be finished with her but I would see she went with the
other man but I would have the kids they are mine.

A 43-year-old working class man from Southampton:

Pack his traps and depart graciously leaving his wife and the other
man in peace to work out their own destiny. Scenes are horrible
anathema to me. Love can be extinguished as well as kindled.

A working class man from Leigh, Lanes:

I should take my son and all our belongings and disappear. I should
find another more trustworthy and leave the other man to keep her.

A Cirencester man:

If it was me I should tell her to get out and not come back but I dare
say I would take her back after a bit because I am still in love with her.

A 25-year-old working class man from Manchester:

If it was my fault, I'm uncertain, as we are now I should want her to
go, but I should want our son.

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 27-year-old working class man from Shipley, Yorks :

Use his discretion from my experience I found it wise to take legal
action against my wife even though she was a good mother and wife
except for being faithful to me. I find if they once start having affairs
they will continue to do so except in very rare cases.

A 46-year-old woman from Malvern :

I, unfortunately, did discover my husband having an affair with
another woman; she was married with a husband in the forces. My
husband and she had a child before I suspected, although he was very
unkind to me, and neglected me and our 2 children. ... As I am a
R.C. I do not believe in divorce so there is a Judicial Separation. I am
fairly happy — the woman in the case died soon after of T.B. so my
husband is now alone.

A 34-year-old woman from Macclesfield :

Well have a divorce of course, but I am alright as I am. I work and
I have 3. 11. 0 and in for another 6/- next month so I'm alright, my
husband has never fulfilled his payments to me for 15 years so why
should I let him go free with a divorce.

A 65-year-old woman from Coventry:

Tell him about it but don't nag and don't leave home & children
through it, I did once and have always regretted it.

A 49-year-old working class woman from Leeds:

If I found my husband having an affair with someone else, I should
say, if she can get more out of him than I can she is welcome to him
and leave it at that he would soon tire.

A 59-year-old working class woman from Nelson, Lanes :

That depends on the wifes position if there are young children. In
my own experience I would ask him to go to the other woman and good
riddance!!

A 32-year-old working class woman from St Albans :

It seems to me most women forgive for the sake of the children but
not me. I'd get a good lawyer and hope to be rid of him bag and baggage,
as I wouldn't want to try to hold him, but I'd see him in hell before he
took my house.

A 27-year-old wife from Bishop's Waltham, Hants:
Pack his case and show him the way out. I haven't a forgiving nature.

A 30-year-old woman from Darlington, Durham:

Try to find out if it is true first, and how far it has progressed. Then
do something about it. If I couldn't forgive or keep on loving I couldn't
live with someone I hated or despised even for the children.

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MARRIAGE II : EXPERIENCE

A 30-year-old married woman from Birmingham:

I would find out if I was letting myself go, if so, try to smarten up,
keep myself young as possible, otherwise I would let him go. I don't
think I would plead and cry, only on behalf of my two children, they
love their daddy.

The spate of quotations — though only a fragment of those avail-
able— in the last two chapters have I hope illustrated the great
importance for English men and women of the institution of marriage
and the seriousness with which they consider it. It is marriage itself
which is important, not, I think, love or sexual gratification; and
marriage is living together, making a home together, making a life
together, and raising children. Perhaps even more for English men
than for English women, parenthood is the greatest joy and greatest
responsibility of adult life.

NOTES TO CHAPTER TEN

1. In January 1951, the British Institute of Public Opinion asked a sample of the
whole of Britain : 'What do you think is the secret of a happy marriage ?' The answers
are somewhat differently categorized to mine, but are strictly comparable. Only in
one instance is there a difference of more than 2 per cent between the sexes; 19 per
cent of the men and 22 per cent of the women mention understanding, tolerance.

Give-and-take 38 per cent

Understanding, tolerance 21 „

Sufficient money 9 „

Mutual trust 6 „

Marrying for love 5 „

Children 5 „

The following factors are only mentioned by 1 or 2 per cent wise choice of partners;
good housing; good cooking; happy physical relations: common religion. Six per cent
of the answers were not classified under these categories, and 10 per cent said there
was no 4secret*. People answering this poll were, apparently, only allowed to name
one factor.

2. See p. 86.

161

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHILDREN I: BENDING THE TWIG

(NOTE: The material in this and the following chapter is founded
entirely on the replies of parents of living children.)

IN A SOCIETY as complex and diversified as contemporary England,
there are relatively few areas in which two-thirds or more of the
population share the same attitudes and practices. This is indeed
a matter of common observation, and is the major argument
advanced against the hypothesis of a national character, which
postulates the existence of shared motives and ideals underlying the
many varieties of observable behaviour within a society. It therefore
seems highly significant that there should be a whole cluster of
common attitudes concerning the proper way of rearing and training
infants and young children from birth onwards which almost
completely override the differences of region and town size, social
class and income.

Studies of national character have generally assumed the existence
of very widely shared patterns of treating the newborn members
of a society so as to form characters similar to those of the parental
generation. This assumption has been based firstly on detailed
observation of primitive societies, in which the treatment accorded
to every infant and child could be watched over a considerable
period; and subsequently, for large and complex societies, by inten-
sive interviewing of socially disparate individuals, supplemented
by a little observation of young children, by photographs and by
pediatric literature. It is therefore theoretically gratifying that the
statistical results of interviews from two large samples should bear
out this fundamental hypothesis so adequately.

In the main sample, 2,328 respondents (47 per cent) were parents;
of these 791 (34 per cent) had only one child, though this included
many of the younger respondents whose families might be unfinished,
and 773 (33 per cent) had two children. Of the remaining third 349 (15
per cent) had three children, 146 (6 per cent) four, exactly the same
number five or more, and 123 people didn't answer; these non-
respondents are partly made up of a very few people who left blank
the whole of the inside page which included these questions, and a
considerable number of the widowed and divorced who may have
been sent the inappropriate forms.

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CHILDREN I: BENDING THE TWIG

The points on which there is this large consensus of opinion are
that cleanliness training should be started before the baby is a year
old (more than two-thirds of the mothers say before it is six months
old), that more harm is done to the child if training is started too
late than if it is started too early, and that children need more dis-
cipline than they get nowadays.

It would be possible to subsume these three points into one more
general statement: 'The formation of a good English character
depends on the parents imposing suitable disciplines as early as
possible; the child's character will be spoiled if the discipline is
insufficient or not applied soon enough.' A metaphor employed
with considerable consistency is the training or pruning of a tree or
plant, which will grow misshapen or sport back to its wild origins
if not timely treated and formed. It is probably significant in this
connection that English is, as far as I can trace, the only European
language which has a single word, nursery, for the place where both
children and plants are reared. In both senses the usage is long
established.1

Implicit in this statement is the assumption, which quite occa-
sionally becomes articulate, that there are innate tendencies of an
undesirable nature in all newborn babies which will develop unless
appropriate training is applied at the proper time, a lay echo of the
religious concept of the Old Adam; and, as a corollary, that the
parents, pastors and masters are to blame in the last resort if the
child is of bad character, ill grown. There is very little belief in
childish innocence2 or in the innate goodness of children, views
which are strongly held in some other societies. Somewhat less
articulate, but nevertheless apparently strongly held, is the belief
that discipline, habit training, is good in itself, and valuable for the
formation of a good character, almost without regard to the habits
trained or imposed. This is of course somewhat of an exaggeration;
but it seems remarkable that nobody queried the meaning of the
question 'Generally speaking, do you consider that children need
more discipline than they get nowadays ?' This is one of the very
few questions on which nobody thought it necessary to write
uninvited comments.

Sixty-eight per cent of the population consider children need more
discipline; 28 per cent that present discipline is sufficient; 2 per cent
that they need less discipline ; and a further 2 per cent did not answer.
The tiny group who think children need less discipline are predomi-
nantly young prosperous men from the metropolises; the non-
answerers are chiefly the old and widowed.

163

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

There is no difference between men and women in the demand for
more discipline, or in satisfaction with the present practice; but
the widowed and divorced demand significantly more discipline
than do the married. Satisfaction with the status quo is slightly
more marked in the two Northern regions, in the medium sized
towns, in the upper working and working classes, and most markedly
in the young parents under 24 who are most engaged with small
children. Demands for more discipline come most from the Midlands,
from people aged over 65, and from the top and bottom of the
economic and social scales, those with incomes of under £5 and over
£15, from the upper middle and lower working classes. The variations
however are very slight, with the exceptions of the young married
couples who are divided almost equally between being satisfied
and demanding more discipline; and on the other hand the upper
middle class who have 83 per cent of its members demanding more
discipline, which is possibly a reflection of the relative absence of
disciplining nurses and governesses in households where the parents
had been reared by professionals.3

A very similar pattern arises from the answers to the question:
'Which is worse for the child, starting training too early — or too late
— or doesn't it make much difference?' This question followed
immediately after 'When should a young child start being trained
to be clean?'4 and it is to be presumed that for most respondents
'training' in this question means cleanliness training. Seventy-eight
per cent of the parents consider that starting training too late is
the more harmful, 12 per cent starting training too early; 8 per cent
considers it makes little difference, and 2 per cent (again predomi-
nantly the old and widowed) do not answer.

There is some conflict between the views of fathers and mothers
on this question: 10 per cent more fathers (82 per cent to 72 per
cent) consider late training more harmful; 7 per cent more mothers
(16 per cent to 9 per cent) consider that too early training may be
harmful. Parents from the North-East and North and the -middle
aged (over 45) are particularly insistent on the danger of postponing
training; the younger group, particularly those under 24, and
members of the upper middle class, followed by the upper working
class, stress the harm of too early training.5

It would seem possible that we have here a synoptic demonstration
of a change in cultural patterns. Modern pediatric advice tends to
consider that early cleanliness training is physiologically useless and
possibly psychologically harmful; and it would appear that the young
mothers of the upper middle and upper working classes have attended

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CHILDREN I: BENDING THE TWIG

pre-natal clinics and taken the advice offered there. If this be the
case, a table taken 20 years ago would show even fewer people
aware of the dangers of too early training, and one taken 20 years
hence might show a very considerable increase in the holders of this
view. This would in turn entail alteration in the generally held views
of human nature (or at any rate childish nature) and the duties
and responsibilities of parents, with all the internal and external
repercussions that that would involve. The first lessons in the principle
of gradualism which English men and women learn would appear
to be these early months or years of training which can only very
slowly become effective; and the patient parents in their turn learn
again that Rome wasn't built in a day, more haste less speed, and all
the other proverbs and apothegms that establish slow and gradual
development as a law of nature and society.

The phrase 'trained to be clean' could of course be understood to
refer to washing rather than toilet training, and it seems possible
that a small group (5 per cent of the fathers and 1 per cent of the
mothers) have so understood it, since they name some period be-
tween 2 and 5 years. A considerable number of men (17 per cent)
and a few women (6 per cent) use the ambiguous phrase 'as soon
as the child understands*. This phrasing is little used by members of the
upper middle or middle classes, by the youngest married couples, or
by the rural South- West; it is especially favoured by the middle-aged
and elderly, members of the upper working class, the most prosperous
people, and the two Northern regions. This phrase differs from any
others used in that it takes the child's development rather than a
schedule into account; but since it is so much favoured by the older
and more prosperous men, it may well be a rational statement
dating from a period when fathers paid relatively little attention to
their infants. Some 3 per cent, mostly middle-aged and lower middle
class, do not answer the question.

Ten per cent of the fathers, and 7 per cent of the mothers name
some period between 1 and 2 years ; and this seems to be part of the
group, referred to above, who have adopted modern pediatric
notions. They are heavily concentrated in the young couples under
34, in the median income groups (£5-£12 a week) in all classes except
the upper and lower middle; but since a child nearing the age of 2
might be capable of washing this category is still slightly ambiguous.
This is not the case for all periods prior to twelve months of age.

Eighty-four per cent of English mothers and 60 per cent of
English fathers consider training should start before the child is a
year old; 69 per cent of the mothers and 45 per cent of the fathers

165

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

before it is 6 months old. The group who name a period between
6 months and 1 year are almost certainly those following contem-
porary advice; they are heavily concentrated in the under 34's, in
the upper middle class followed by the lower working and working
classes; on income they reach two peaks, in the £5-£8 a week and
the over £15 a week groups. Relatively few of the poor or the elderly
name this period.

Four categories were fixed for early training, chiefly dependent
on the actual phrase used. Just a quarter of the mothers and half
that number of the fathers state flatly 'from birth'. This is particularly
favoured by the middle-aged mothers, between 35 and 64 in the upper
middle, middle and upper working classes. The slightly more am-
biguous phrases 'as early as possible', 'it's never too early', and so
on are used considerably more by men, especially older men, than
by women, 15 per cent men and 8 per cent women. There is some
concentration in the smaller towns in the North- West. This group
may well be identical with that which names a period under 2 months,
very often 'as soon as the mother comes back from hospital' or 'as
soon as the mother gets up'; this more precise phrasing is used
twice as often by mothers as by fathers (14 per cent women and 7
per cent men), and is again somewhat more favoured by the middle-
aged and elderly. If these two groups of phrases are treated as
identical, both referring to some period shortly after birth but less
than 8 weeks, and the two columns put together we find that fathers
and mothers express similar views; that there is some preference
for this early start in the two Northern regions and the upper middle
class, particularly among the middle-aged and elderly.

Another 23 per cent of the mothers, and 14 per cent of the fathers
name some period between 2 and 6 months, usually with considerable
precision, but occasionally saying as soon as the baby can be held
in a sitting position. This period, which is physiologically perhaps
the most senseless of all, is barely mentioned by the upper middle
class and little by the upper working class; it is favoured by all the
others, particularly the middle and lower middle. It is mentioned
relatively seldom in the North-West or by the elderly.6

Although the questionnaire called for no elaboration, quite a
number of respondents added illuminating comments. The absolute
moral value given to early training is illustrated by the 33-year-old
working class father from Leicester, who wrote that training should
start 'as soon as he or she can understand the difference between good
and bad' ; and, rather more ferociously, by the 32-year-old Surbiton

166

CHILDREN i: BENDING THE TWIG

mother of two, who describes herself as The £6 a week working
class that all other classes of the country depend on to make this
country's fortune' :

From the very first time of its life, if you are going to let it live, let

it live the correct way from the first and not let it do one thing at a

given time and later make it change its habits.

A middle class mother from Lower Standen, Henley:

From the time it is bora, but I am not saying how much luck you
have, you just have to keep trying.

A 32-year-old lower middle class mother from Enfield:

As early as possible in my experience in spite of the psychologists
who say cleanliness before a year — 18 months is more luck than
judgment.

A working class father from Slough:
From birth then it comes naturally and all it needs is patience.

A working class mother of four from Hastings:

A very tiny baby soon knows what is required of him when he is
'potted' after a feed. I should say about 6 weeks.

A 39-year-old working class mother from Halifax:

It should be trained patiently as early as possible but no bullying.
Praise and co-operation are essential.

A 54-year-old father from Darfield:

At four weeks old. Start holding the child out to do its motions with-
out napkin at set times each day. This is the foundation of cleanliness.

A working class mother of two from Honiton:

From one month but don't be disappointed if no results until the
child can talk.

A 28-year-old mother from Faraley:

I should say as soon as possible though results do not often come
quickly.

A working class mother from Derby:

Usually about 6 weeks is soon enough, but often then it is only good
luck.

A working class father from Kidderminster:

When the mother has the time to waste periods of up to about an
hour holding it out. Otherwise when the child can be sat on a comode.

A 40-year-old middle class father from Liverpool:
At 6 months it becomes clean parrot like.

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

It would seem as though, for most English people, the desirability
of early training is so highly charged with emotional and moral
values that they are incapable of learning from experience. Indeed,
parents of larger families (three or more children) are slightly more
insistent than the parents of one or two children on the dangers of
postponing training. A very few parents showed that they had
learned from experience.

Figure XXVI

Question 60 by Question 62
60. How many children have you ?
62. Which is worse for the child?

Question 62

Question 60

Starting

Or doesn't it

training

Or too late

make much

No answer

Total

too early

difference

100

5 and more

100

No answer

100

Total

100

Thus, a working class mother from Birmingham :

I found with my oldest I started her at about 3 weeks and I couldn't
do anything with her until she was 2J. The other I started at 12 months
and she was no bother at all.

A 32-year-old working class father from Colyton, Devon:

I didn't think a child could be trained too early to be clean, but my
experience (only a year's) proves otherwise; so I would say from 1
year old.

A 42-year-old middle class woman from Colne :

I 'potted' mine, on a pot on my knee, for a very short time at regular
intervals daily, from birth. Tho' they didn't always perform then!
Many people don't bother until a year or so later; either training can
be successful if you don't fuss.

These parents, it must be repeated, are very exceptional. For the
vast majority of English mothers and fathers, the physiological
development and potentialities of the child do not seem to be taken

168

CHILDREN I: BENDING THE TWIG

into account. The first duty of a responsible parent is to impose the
discipline of cleanliness at the proper date; the first lesson of a
properly brought-up child is to respond.7

Until a baby can walk its training is inevitably almost entirely
in the hands of its mother, even though fathers may have very
definite ideas how the baby should be trained. When it acquires
physical independence, and before it goes to school, it will in most
cases spend the greater part of its time with its mother alone, since
nearly all fathers are away at work during week-days; when it stark
school many of its waking hours are spent under the supervision
of teachers. Habitually, the child spends relatively few hours in
the week with its father.

This pattern is of course common to the greater number of families
living in technically complex societies; but within this pattern there
seems to be a number of possibilities of variation in the authority
and roles of father, mother, teacher and possibly other publicly
appointed figures. On theoretical grounds these variations can be
expected to be of considerable importance, since the conscience
(the conscious portion of the super-ego) would appear to be largely
formed by the incorporation of some aspects of the dominant figure
or figures of authority in childhood, so that most people approve
and disapprove of themselves and others in the light of the standards
they have introjected in their formative years.

Parents and parent surrogates demonstrate their authority by
establishing rules of conduct which the child should follow, by
punishing transgressions from these rules and (at least on occasion)
rewarding obedience. Within the limits of a questionnaire only one
facet of this complex and significant problem could be studied directly,
though the answers to many other questions can be considered
partially relevant; and the question I asked was: 'Who is the proper
person to punish a child who has done something really bad?' I gave
the alternatives: 'Mother: Father: Teacher: Other (please specify)*.
I also asked Why? the reason for the choice made; but this was the
unique occasion where insufficient space was provided on the printed
questionnaire, and a third of the sample did not answer, presumably
because they had not noticed that the query was there. My reasons
for asking about punishment rather than reward were manifold;
the power of authority is shown in the last resort by the ability to
inflict sanctions; and although love, and the rewards which flow from
it, are of inestimable importance in forming character, I considered it
improbable that respondents would ascribe more love to one parent
than to the other.

169

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

On gross figures, three-fifths of English parents (61 per cent)
think the father should be the chief source of authority in the home,
and one-third (35 per cent) the mother; one in twenty (6 per cent)
name the teacher, and one in fifty (2 per cent) some other figure,
typically a policeman. The total is a little over 100 per cent as some
parents named more than one punishing authority; the old and
poor advance the view that mothers should punish their daughters
and fathers their sons ; the more prosperous members of the lower
middle class especially consider that father, mother and teacher are
equally appropriate; and another small group with some concentra-
tion in the upper middle class demand that the odium of punishment
be shared, so that neither parent shall be disliked more than the
other.

Quite a number of the fathers of the lower middle class, particularly
the middle-aged and elderly, would grant chief authority to the
teacher; as will be shown later8 members of this class seem particu-
larly willing to concede authority to 'the state'. No members of the
upper middle or lower working class name the teacher. A few of
the lower working class, particularly the youngest mothers, name
the policeman, who again is not mentioned by the upper middle
class.

Taking the country as a whole, three-quarters of the fathers (72
per cent) consider that fathers should do the punishment, and one-
quarter (27 per cent) that mothers should; mothers are divided
very nearly equally, with a slight preponderance (49 per cent for
fathers, contrasted with 46 per cent for mothers) in favour of paternal
authority. These figures were minutely analyzed in a number of
ways, with a rather interesting result: men's opinions of the role of
the parents vary quite considerably in different regions, and to a
certain extent by town size and economic level, but with a couple
of exceptions (mothers from the South-West and in the £12-£15
income range claim much less authority for themselves than do the
women in other regions or income groups) women's views of the
different parental roles are remarkably stable. This leads me to
hazard the generalization that the differences between the characters
of the different English regions (as opposed to such characteristics as
accent, vocabulary, or regional cooking) are to a considerable
extent based on the differing attitudes held by men about women.9

The fathers in the North-East and North, followed by the Mid-
lands, are the most insistent on paternal authority; those from the
North- West and South- West are least so. Men from the metropolises
conceded slightly more authority to their wives than do those in

170

CHILDREN I: BENDING THE TWIG

the smaller communities. As family income goes up the father claims
more and more authority, from the poorest groups (under £5 a
week) of which only half claim paternal authority, to the most
prosperous (over £15 a week) where it is claimed by four-fifths.
Maternal authority is lowest in the lower middle class (except for the
Midlands) and the lower working class (except for London and
the South-East); paternal authority is somewhat weaker in the
middle class, contrasted with the working class in London and the
South-East and in the Midlands; in the remaining regions there is
little difference.

It seems as though there are a number of influences somewhat
modifying the general English picture of paternal authority in the
family. The most marked is the regional, where the mothers in the
two Western regions, above all the North- West, are conceded more
influence than in the rest of the country ; they also have more authority
in the big towns than in the rest of the country. In the poorest
families, and among the elderly the mother's authority equals that
of the father; as income and social position improve, so does the
mother's authority decrease, reaching its nadir in the lower middle
class and in the £12-£15 income group. There is a slight recrudescence
in maternal authority among the most prosperous and (to a lesser
extent) in the middle and upper middle classes which would have
the tradition, if no longer the practice, of boys and girls both being
under feminine discipline (nurses and governesses) for a number of
years. It seems possible that the resemblance in some traits between
the upper middle and lower working classes (in contrast to the inter-
mediate groups) may in part derive from the greater influence of
women in the earlier years of the lives of members of both these
classes.

In the few families in which there are more than three children
mothers are more likely to do the punishing than they are in smaller
families.

As has already been said, the answers to the question why one
parent or representative of authority should be chosen was to a
great extent vitiated by the faulty lay-out of the questionnaire, with
the result that the figures are only illustrative, though failure to
answer is pretty evenly divided among all the categories. A quarter
of those who did reply used the space to modify rather than explain
their answer — to suggest disciplinary roles for the parent or teacher
not named in the answer to the first part of the question. Thus,
some 8 per cent, heavily concentrated in the more prosperous groups
of the lower middle class, consider that father, mother and teacher

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Figure XXVII
Question 60 by Question 64

60. How many children have you?

64. Who is the proper person to punish a child who has done something really bad?

Question 64

Question 60

Mother

Father

Teacher

Others

No answer

Total

103

108

105

'06

5 and more

112

No answer

102

Total

105

should each punish in their own sphere, Typical of this attitude is
the 37-year-old middle class father from Southend-on-Sea:

All three are required, I do not consider I should punish a child for
anything done in my absence or after the 'crime' has been committed.

Another 4 per cent, chiefly composed of the poor and elderly,
again somewhat concentrated in the lower middle class, advocate
that fathers should punish the boys and mothers the girls, on account
of the possible pathological implications. An example of this attitude
is the 47-year-old middle class father from London:

Father or mother each to each sex, to prevent any sexual aberration

in later life.

A small group of 2 per cent think that both parents should take
the onus of punishment to prevent one being turned into an ogre or
bug-bear; this is advanced somewhat more by fathers, particularly
the younger fathers, than by mothers. A young working class mother
from Sheffield writes:

I think Mother and father equally. Because this job is too often (in
our household at any rate) left to mother giving the child a false im-
pression of his parents.

Similarly, a 26-year-old middle class mother from Henley:

I think mother and father should punish because if not it gives the
child a one-sided aifection if one person does the punishing.

There are two arguments (with a total of 5 per cent in each case)
which are much more advanced by the mothers than by the fathers:

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CHILDREN i: BENDING THE TWIG

that punishment should be given immediately by whichever parent
is present, and that discipline is more effective if it is administered
by both parents. Apart from the sex distribution advocates of the
first argument are very evenly divided, except that no members
of the upper middle class advance it; they advance the second
argument in considerable numbers; and this argument (that shared
discipline is more effective) in general finds far more favour in all
three middle classes and the upper working class, than it does in
the working class; and it is not mentioned by the lower working
class. As far as these incomplete figures can be taken as a guide,
it would seem that the concept of multiple authorities is far more
congenial to the middle classes, than it is to the working classes,
who tend to favour a single figure of authority. This is true even for
the small group who think that all authority should be given to the
teachers.

Twenty-eight per cent of the respondents provided explanations
for father being the punisher, and 14 per cent for mother; these
figures are of course very considerably less than those advanced for
choosing either parent (61 per cent and 35 per cent respectively)
but the proportions are not dissimilar.

The most important argument for paternal authority is that the
father is the legal head of the household, the boss; 18 per cent of
the fathers and 14 per cent of the mothers advance this view, with
a heavy concentration in the younger parents of the two Northern
regions in the upper working and working classes, followed by the
lower middle; very few in the upper middle class hold this view. The
argument that father makes more impression (10 per cent fathers
and 7 per cent mothers) is particularly favoured in the lower working
class; but it has advocates in all categories. So too does the argument
that father is the juster or fairer parent, with the exception of the
youngest married group (under 24).

Fathers repeat, sometimes simply, and sometimes with elabora-
tions, the statement that 'father should be the head of the house*.
'Father should be head of his household and therefore settle serious
things' (a lower middle class father from Peterborough); 'One
usually gets punished by "the boss", and, begging Mum's pardon,
Father is the boss of the house P (a 31-year-old lower middle class
father from Bristol); The father as head of the house is responsible
for his or her actions* (a 28-year-old 'poor working class* father from
Farnworth, Lanes); *A child should for his own sake have to answer
to one authority— and by the very nature of things that authority
ought very properly to be the child's father* (a lower middle class

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

father from Peterborough); 'Father's position at home is like a
headmasters at school. Severity meets with severity' (a 'reasonably
middle class' 29-year-old father from Hereford).

Besides this widespread concept of the father's legal position
and rights, there is also a fairly widely diffused view of 'human
nature' which makes father the 'natural' figure of authority. Thus,
a 41-year-old miner from Cullercoats, Northumberland writes
'Father should punish on account of herd instinct, he is the leader',
and then adds, in parenthesis, *I prefer my wife to punish my
children and not as some mothers telling their children just wait till
your Dad comes home' !

On the father's greater justice or impressiveness, a 24-year-old
working class father from Culcheth, Lanes, represents many when
he writes:

After punishment by mother, the child is usually smothered in kisses

and told in a sweet voice that he or she has been naughty and must not

do it again, the effect of the punishment being nil.

A 28-year-old 'average working class' mother from London:

Mother scolds all day, so they take more notice of father, if he only
punishes when they are really bad.

A 44-year-old middle class father from London :

Children have a hearty respect for Dad if they know it is going to
hurt if they do not do as they are told.

A working class father of six from Hucknall, Notts :
I think that most children today fear father more than mother.

A retired gardener from Lincolnshire :
Father is the figure head who all look up to.

Three reasons are given why the mother should do the punishing:
that she understands the child better; that she is less harsh or heavy-
handed; and that she is always around. It is only this last reason
which is much advocated by men (5 per cent fathers and 3 per cent
mothers); this argument has no advocates in the upper middle class,
possibly because it does not apply to that section of the community.
The argument that mothers understand their children better is
advanced by 1 1 per cent of the mothers to 4 per cent of the fathers,
particularly the younger mothers (under 24) whose children are
likely to be tiny, and with some concentration among the poorer
members of the upper and lower working classes. Regionally it has
most advocates from the North-West and fewest from the North-
East and North. A working class mother from Hull speaks for most

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CHILDREN I: BENDING THE TWIG

who use this argument in stating: 'Mother really knows the child's
nature and can punish accordingly."

The greater gentleness of the mother, advanced by 5 per cent of
the mothers and 2 per cent of the fathers, has a rather odd distribu-
tion, with a heavy concentration in the upper middle class, followed
by the lower working class, and in the Midlands. This may perhaps
be an artifact of the imperfect responses. A 36-year-old working
class wife from Shrewsbury :

I think a Father is too harsh, I think a Mother explains better and if

she smacks, her hands don't come as heavy as a man's.

Finally there is a small group — almost entirely male as far as this
sample goes — whose reason for choosing one parent rather than
the other as punishing agent is the amount of pain or humiliation
the child will receive, rather than any of the ideas of law or justice,
understanding or tenderness which inform the vast majority of the
respondents. A few quotations will fortunately be sufficient to
illustrate this attitude.

A prosperous father from Beckenham with one 2-year-old girl:

Daughters — Father should punish as it would be more affective as
by a natural tendency daughters seem to adore their Father's more than
their Mother's.

A middle-class father from Stockport, Cheshire, with two
daughters :

Mother should punish because women are always the best torturers.

A building trades worker from London S.E. with six children:

Mother should punish because being closest to the child she upsets
the child more.

A lower middle class father, unwillingly living in Egham after
having been blitzed from the North country:

Father should punish the child and hurt the child's pride first by
denying it something it most desires, or send it to bed whatever the time
of day and lock up its clothes so that mother cannot appease the child
during father's absence.

Because a child, like a rose bush, if untrained, will 'sport back' to
its early beginnings — for example a 'wild rose'.
This respondent considerably over-ran his space to outline his
ideas on suitable punishments for boys and girls:

If a boy is naughty, First offence — an explanation of why he is
naughty, and a good reason why his offence should not be repeated.

Second offence — a reminder of what he was previously told and a
warning of what *may' happen if the offence is repeated a third time.

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Other offences— Determination on the part of the parent or teacher
to prove to the naughty boy that his will will not prevail, and that he
must fit into the general scheme of life.

There was nothing whatever wrong with the forms of punishment in my
youthful days and I have never borne any ill-feeling towards the masters
who administered them to me; for, on reflection, I must have earned it.
On the contrary, I am certain that I preferred them the more because
they 'knocked' into me much schooling which otherwise I would not
have paid attention to.

Girls should be punished by imposing a stronger (your) will on hers,
and rot weakening in your desire to make her a 'decent' citizen by
weaning her away from undesirable friends and contacts. A mother
should make a 'friend' of her daughter and by that means guide her on
the right path.

Most girls have a 'point of honour' which a father, for instance, can
quickly assail by challenging her that she has let him down badly by
showing such a nasty attitude to her mother, who is always prepared
to do such a lot for the girls welfare and happiness, that he is ashamed
of her. This works generally.

This respondent has been quoted at such length, because he is
particularly articulate about one facet of English character which
would appear to be fairly widespread : the preoccupation with the
moral duty of punishing children and the pleasures of severity.

NOTES TO CHAPTER ELEVEN

1. Oxford English Dictionary 'The apartment which is given up to infants and
young children with their nurse' (1499); *A piece of ground in which young plants
and trees are reared until fit for transplantation' (1565).

2. See p. 178.

3. The same question had been asked in December 1949 by Odhams Press Research
Section of 488 men and 566 women, a sample which included the unmarried as well
as the married and widowed. The sexes did not differ in their answers which were,
for the whole population, 78 per cent demand more discipline, 20-5 per cent saying
the same and 1 per cent saying less. Of the married respondents with children, who
are strictly comparable to my sample, 74 per cent said they needed more discipline,
25 per cent the same, and 1 per cent less. In this group also the demand for more
discipline increased with age.

4. See pp. 165-169.

5. The figures from the field survey are quite strikingly parallel: 80 per cent of the
parents interviewed think starting training too late is more harmful to the child,
8 per cent starting too early, 9 per cent that it doesn't make much difference and 3 per
cent no answer. In the field survey those against early training are concentrated m
the upper middle class, and mothers outnumber fathers; in contrast with the main
sample there is a certain concentration of advocates of late training from London
and the South-East. In the mam survey the only regional difference is that of the
North-East and North, referred to above. There were 996 parents (56 per cent) in
the field survey.

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CHILDREN I: BENDING THE TWIG

6. The answers to the field survey are categorized somewhat differently, apparently
in part because the interviewers demanded an answer of some time period. There is
so much difference in the views of fathers and mothers in the field survey that it is
preferable to list them separately. Corresponding figures for the mam sample are
given in brackets and italics.

Percentage Percentage

Period of mothers of fathers

From birth 39 (24) 22 (12}

Within first 6 months 32 (45) 21 (35)

7-12 months 19 (15) 22 (16)

1 year-5 years 8 (8) 23 (15)

Over 5 years 1 (-) 3 (-)

Don't know 1 (2) 9 (3)

As far as the mothers are concerned, the pattern revealed by the field survey and the
main sample are very similar; the absence of a category for the return from hospital
puts a somewhat higher percentage in the period 4from birth' and a slightly lower one
in the period 'within 6 months' ; but the sum of these is practically identical. The figures
for fathers, on the other hand, suggest that the training of babies is far too delicate
a subject to be discussed with a female interviewer; obviously many of them interpreted
the question to refer to washing, and a tenth refused to answer at all.

In the field survey, the demand that training should start at birth was concentrated
in London, with respondents from the lower middle and lower working classes; it was
relatively little demanded from the South-West, from parents under 35 and from the
upper middle classes. Within the first 6 months is particularly stressed in the North-
East and North, in the youngest married groups, and by the more prosperous (o\er
£12 a week); it is little mentioned by upper middle, lower middle and upper working
classes. The upper middle and upper working classes have the greater number of
proponents of the later periods; 7-12 months is particularly favoured by the parents
aged 25-34.

7. I did not consider it appropriate to ask for details about infant feeding in this
questionnaire; moreover, extremely good recent material on this question is available
in the survey Maternity in Great Britain (undertaken by a Joint Committee of the
Royal College of Orthopaedists and Gynaecologists and the Population Investigation
Committee (Oxford University Press, 1948)). This impressive study covers the children
of all the women, some 14,000 in all, who were born in England and Wales during
a specified week in 1946. Eight weeks after delivery, 45 per cent of the mothers were
wholly breast-feeding their babies, 12 per cent were giving supplementary feeds, and
43 per cent were feeding entirely from the bottle. According to this survey, the estab-
lishment of breast-feeding is closely correlated with adequate ante-natal advice; and,
since the ante-natal services are in most areas fairly recent it seems probable that, if
there has been a change in recent years, it has been in the direction of more breast-
feeding. This survey does not cover the question whether the child is fed to a schedule
or *on demand'; but such observation as is available to me suggests that schedules
are customary.

8. See p. 298.

9. See also pp. 190, 302-3.

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CHAPTER TWELVE

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THE BAD TENDENCIES, the undesirable instincts, the wrong behaviour
which most English parents feel it their duty to uproot or eradicate
or control in their young offspring are overwhelmingly concerned
with some aspect of aggression: destruction of property, theft,
cruelty to animals, cruelty to other children and so on. There are of
course other aspects of childish behaviour which many view with
grave disapproval: lying, swearing, wanton disobedience, and, for
a very few, sexual or excremental misdeeds; but these are usually
supplementary to, rather than contrasted with, acts of aggression
in the minds of those parents who envisage any kind of serious
childish misbehaviour.

The question asked was : 'If you were told that a small child, say
between 3 and 8, had done something really bad, what would you
think the child had done?' Some 5 per cent, mainly concentrated
among the middle aged and elderly and the widowed, did not answer
this question ; and 6 per cent, to a large extent the same group, said
they couldn't think of anything. One parent in eight, 12 per cent of
the total, denied that a child of that age could do anything really
bad; the remaining three-quarters of the population named some
childish misdemeanour, most of them more than one, so that the
base line figure is 123 per cent, rather than 77 per cent, as it would
have been if each parent had only named one misdemeanour.
Eighty-six per cent name some type of aggression.

The upholders of childish innocence are significantly concentrated
in the middle-aged and elderly, who are likely to be no longer in
contact with young children, though it does find some proponents
among the younger parents also. There is rather more emphasis on
this viewpoint from the South- West, from the lower middle class,
and from the most prosperous compared with other sections of the
community. Many of the proponents of this view seem to take an
attitude analogous to that judicially upheld in the McNaghten rules,
that guilt lies not in the act, but in knowing that the act was wrong;
since the child's intentions are not evil, its act is not 'really bad'. Thus,
a 37-year-old working class mother from Derby:

Goodness only knows nowadays they do such queer things but I
don't think a child of that age would do anything really wicked with
evil intent.

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CHILDREN II: PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

A 33-year-old working class father from Denton, Lanes :

A small child of this age can't do anything really bad. Stealing
perhaps ? cruelty to animals ? A tiny mind does not regard as bad things
it will deplore in later life.

A 43-year-old middle class father from Swinton, Yorks:

Probably something not really bad at all. Maybe something due to
an attempt to enlarge personal experience or something to draw
attention to himself or herself. We cannot do wrong unless we know the
difference between right and wrong.

A 43-year-old working class wife from Ilford:

I cannot conceive that a child that age could do anything really bad.
I was beaten by my mother for a number of things until I married.
The beatings never stopped me from doing the same things again.

A 62-year-old middle class mother from Cottingley, Yorks :

it can't have done anything really bad at that age, the worst my boy
did was bite another childs fingers whilst playing at dogs, 'my', didn't
the childs Mother shout, she said she would bite him, but she had me
to reckon with, he was put to bed out of harms way,

Of the different acts of aggression, theft is the one most often
named; 33 per cent of the fathers and 41 per cent of the mothers
name this misdeed. The balance of the sexes is reversed with the
other offence against property — damage or destruction; 22 per cent
of the fathers and 18 per cent of the mothers mention this. The fears
that children will steal or damage property is more common in the
big cities than in the small towns, among the younger parents (under
35) than among the older, and among the more prosperous members
of the community. This fear is comparatively little stressed by mem-
bers of the lower middle and upper working classes, who tend to
concentrate on more direct aggression or on other moral faults.

Thirteen per cent of the fathers and 14 per cent of the mothers
fear injury or cruelty to another child, 12 per cent of the fathers
and 15 per cent of the mothers injury or cruelty to an animal.
These fears are particularly voiced by parents between the ages
of 24 and 44, by the inhabitants of small towns and villages, and
by the more prosperous members of the middle classes, particularly
the lower middle and upper middle. They are comparatively seldom
mentioned by people living in the Midlands or by the lower working
class. A very small group, chiefly mothers of the upper working class,
mention fighting as 'really bad' childish behaviour; and a few possibly
facetious correspondents mention murder.

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The unconscious connection between these different types of

aggression is illustrated by a number of respondents who link

them together. Thus, a working class father of 3 from Huddersfield :

Hit another child with something to cause a serious injury. Of course

if your informant was a woman it would most likely be some vase or

plate had been broken.

A father from Southend-on-Sea :
Push another child in the river etc. shut the cat puppy in the oven.

A 32-year-old working class mother from Barnes, Surrey:

From experience I might think the child had thrown a stone at
another child or pulled the petals off every flower in someone's gardens.

A remarried mother from Accrington, Lanes :

Most children of this age tend to steel things, or bite and kick other
children, I think it is the developing age.

A working class mother of 3 from Liverpool, aged 35:

Might run into a roadway and nearly been knocked down or hit a
younger child than hisself or done something to a dumb animal or
perhaps spoilt something on you you can't replace or fix.

A 27-year-old working class mother from Harpenden :

Wilfully ill treated an animal. Children as young as this rarely do
bad things intentionally but they are inclined to enjoy being spiteful to
animals and younger children.

A poor middle class widow from Ilford, aged 65 :
Probably been very cruel to an animal — children usually love animals.

A 24-year-old working class housewife from Doncaster:

I can't decide on this. But my son chopped a hens head off the other
day and I didnt approve at all.

A 65-year-old retired jeweller from Torquay:

If jealous of younger brother (or sister) who was made more of than
itself—physical force or even murder might be attempted. Many
children delight in throwing things on the fire. During the war very
small children learnt to abuse their sexual organs in Air Raid Shelters
— To My Knowledge.

A 31 -year-old father from Southend seems to typify most English
parents' attitude in saying that he would suspect the child of having
done 'Something destructive, rather than sexual.'

Very few English parents—a mere 3 per cent— mention childish
sexuality; it is hard to tell from the evidence whether such behaviour

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CHILDREN H: PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

is not noticed, is not considered serious, or is considered too upsett-
ing to be mentioned in the answers to a questionnaire. Probably all
three explanations operate in some cases ; but in view of the very
great frankness which characterizes most of the answers, I would
hazard that by and large there is relatively little parental anxiety on
this score. It is however curious that the respondents of the lower
middle class hardly mention this subject at all; they are also reticent
about the possibility of a child making a mess, which is feared by
4 per cent of the fathers (particularly the youngest group) and 1 per
cent of the mothers. Greater than either of these anxieties is the
fear that the child should use 'bad5 language; 9 per cent of the
fathers and 3 per cent of the mothers, concentrated in the middle
income groups of the upper working and working classes, fear
this.

The importance given to swearing1 and 'bad' language by the
English, particularly by the men of the upper working and working
classes who are themselves most likely to use the tabooed words,
seems idiosyncratic and difficult to explain on a rational level. As
will be seen, the bad words are for a number of respondents the
equivalent or alternative to the bad act; and it also seems possible
that swearing is envisaged as aggressive and that, by reflection,
the sexual or excretory acts referred to acquire an aggressive tinge.
If this hypothesis is correct, then the fear of the appearance of
aggressive tendencies in children is even more widespread than I
described it earlier.

The following are a few examples of the linking of bad language
and bad acts in guessing at the 'really bad' things a child might have
done. 'Wet the bed or swore' (working class father from High
Wycombe); 'Swore and exposed itself as they nearly always do so
at some time or other' (a working class father from Leeds, aged 31);
'Swore or become curious about the human body' (a 42-year-old
working class father from Cannock); 'Having had considerable
experience of children of 7-8 I should single out Insolence, Bad
Language, and even stealing as being the outstanding "crimes" of
children of this particular age' (a middle class schoolmaster from
Cornwall); 'Used language reserved for grown-ups' (a 38-year-old
working class father from Bradford). This last man says of his chil-
dren 'I don't want them to swear. They think I don't' ; and may per-
haps give a further clue to the fear of childish swearing by linking
it with precocity. Precocity itself is very seldom mentioned; a 29-
year-old Hereford man writes of a child having 'Partaken in some
premature form of Enjoyment. Either smoking, drinking dads beer,

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

or some sex act'; his articulateness on this aspect of childhood
development is uncommon.

Apart from swearing, quite a few respondents link excretion or
sexual behaviour with aggression. A middle class father from Harrow :
Deliberately 'wet' etc. on the floor of my room as a form of nasty
temper.

A 30-year-old mother from Darlington:

Perhaps tortured or hurt a dumb animal, or another child, or set fire
to something — causing danger, knowing it to be wrong. Also — 'sexual
knowledge' makes my flesh creep.

A 30-year-old father from Galgate, Lanes :

Impossible to answer this. A child between 3-8 is unpredictable and
too near the animal state to be above doing anything, from eating buns,
playing with little girls/boys sexual organs, or setting house on fire,

A metaphor with some odd overtones which occurs fairly regularly
to describe childish masturbation is 'playing with her own personal
property' or 'playing with his private property5. Quite a few respon-
dents, particularly the older people, use this periphrasis; if it is
widely spread (I had never previously encountered it) the socio-
political implications are interesting.

A working class mother of one 4-year-old boy living in South-
East London tells an illuminating anecdote in this connection. She
writes :

Hard to say. My own experience being that, my boy when aged 2

with another little friend aged 3 urinated in the garden several times.

We were sent a letter from a solicitor complaining of 'disgraceful and

disgusting' conduct and threatened with notice to quit if it did not stop.

T understand many little boys have this phase. The neighbours who

complained did not approach me at all.

Nine per cent of the fathers and 7 per cent of the mothers mention
some form of disobedience as what they would suspect a naughty
child to have committed. Where the disobediences are specified,
they concentrate on going into forbidden places, either crossing
dangerous roads or running away, or otherwise endangering them-
selves. It would seem that the dangers from traffic are particularly
feared, for it is above all the less prosperous inhabitants of London
who mention this, followed by the inhabitants of the smallest towns
and villages who write of young children not coining back directly
from school. Thus, a 36-year-old mother of two girls from a village
near Salisbury:

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CHILDREN II : PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

If school age, they have gone for a walk, and don't come back to time
and they are a hour late, its so worrying and you always think the worst
as happened, when they show up you are too relieved to punish them too
much.

A 48-year-old mother from Nuneaton, Warwickshire:

Swallow a safety pin and a pebble and a two inch nail which mine did
and lived thats really bad while playing.

The fear that the child might have told 'a bad lie' is voiced more
by mothers than by fathers (12 per cent mothers and 8 per cent
fathers) particularly the older parents (over 45) of the middle, lower
middle and upper working classes. A few members (2 per cent) of
the same groups suggest that the child might have 'followed a bad
example' without being more specific.

Another small group of 2 per cent, somewhat concentrated in the
upper middle and lower working classes consider that children are
capable of any misdemeanour so that they would not be surprised
whatever they heard. Thus, a 47-year-old professional man from
London :

Shot Grandma dead, or said 'Dash!' according to the informant.

A 40-year-old working class father from East Ham:
Goodness knows ? they have more tricks than a monkey at that age.

A 72-year-old middle class father from Clacton:

Called the Parson a B when he was caressing the dear child or

letting the Canary out.

I think it can be fairly stated that the typical English view of
childish nature is that the young child is inadequately human and
that, unless the parents are careful and responsible, it will revert
to, or stay in, a 'wild* or 'animal' state, aggressive, destructive,
without proper respect of property or sense of shame. To transform
the child into a proper human being, a good English man or woman,
undesirable or retrogressive tendencies must be eradicated by
appropriate punishment. Desirable tendencies may also be fostered
by appropriate reward; but as far as my evidence goes there is less
articulate feeling about this. It seems possible that the 'ordinary
life' of a boy or girl of good character is considered sufficiently
rewarding by itself.

Nearly all English parents have very decided views on what
punishments are appropriate, and what inappropriate, for naughty
boys and girls. Only 4 per cent of the population failed to name
some punishment they approve of, and 8 per cent some punishment

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

they disapprove of, for boys; in the case of girls the corresponding
figures are 8 per cent and 12 per cent. These abstainers are predomi-
nantly the elderly and the widowed. There is also a tiny group of
less than one in a hundred who don't think children should be
punished at all. All the remainder approve of some form of punish-
ment, and, in most cases, of more than one form; the base line is
149 per cent in the case of boys and 141 per cent in the case of girls.
The list of disapproved-of punishments is somewhat fewer: 125 per
cent of punishments are disapproved of for boys, 116 per cent for
girls.

There are a couple of generalizations which seem worth making
before the subject is discussed in more detail. With the single
exception of physical punishment for girls in their teens (when this
is approved of for boys of this age) English parents, especially in
the middle and working classes, appear very unwilling to make a
distinction in the treatment of boys and girls, to elaborate more
than the minimum necessary on the basic physiological differences
in sex. 'I do not believe sex should be stressed, even in punishments'
(written by a 42-year-old Liverpool father) is a constantly recurring
theme. With some fathers, this statement is made with a faint touch
of resentment at female privilege: 'I don't see why girls should
have it easier, just because they're girls' (a young father from
London). Rather a surprising number of parents appear aware of
the pathological potentialities implicit in physical punishment.

It also seems to be worth noting that among the less educated
groups the phrase 'corporal punishment' is quite consistently mis-
understood to mean 'cruel or brutal punishments.' Numerous
respondents write to the effect *a naughty boy should be given a
good caning but I don't approve of corporal punishment.' This
misunderstanding was so consistent that I found it necessary to
create a special category for it; at least one parent in six misuses the
term. It follows that any statements about the attitude of the English
public, or at any rate the less educated sections of it, toward corporal
punishment should be accepted with the very greatest suspicion.

Nearly all the punishments mentioned with either approval or
disapproval by English parents fall into five main groups: depriva-
tion, restraint, verbal punishments (such as lectures), manual punish-
ments (slapping or spanking) and physical punishments with
instruments. There are a few, however, mentioned by small groups,
which fall outside these categories; they can be dealt with fairly
summarily.

The setting of household tasks as a punishment is mentioned with

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CHILDREN II : PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

approval by 2 per cent of the parents for boys and 5 per cent for
girls and is considered inappropriate by 1 per cent for both sexes,
In the case of girls it finds its greatest number of advocates in the
lower middle and lower working classes. Thus, an 'ordinary working
class' mother from Leicester advises for older children:

For a boy, stay in and help in the house that day; a girl should be
made to do some mending or clean her own bedroom.

A 46-year-old working class father from Exeter advises :

Age under 10 — go to bed early with no light to read in bed. Over 10
— forfeit his pocket money if issued weekly. If pocket money not in
issue — then made to do menial job in the house — chopping sticks,
getting coal etc. so depriving him of his companionship of a good book
or his boy friends for an hour or so.

A working class painter from Sandwich, Kent, disapproves of
this type of punishment because:

To regard small household jobs as punishment, I believe this tends
to make hatred of ordinary household jobs later in life.

This man is not so cunning as the 29-year-old lower middle class
father of three girls from Chigwell, who writes :

Most girls like to help around the house, if refused this way of play
this checks them, because I find that a girl who finds she can be done
without, soon try to make amends.

There are three types of punishment which are mentioned almost
entirely by the upper middle class and high income groups: lines,
making the child apologize (as sole punishment), and psychiatric
treatment. A few members of the other groups in the community
mention psychiatric treatment with disapproval ('There is far too
much talk about "psychology'*' writes a lower middle class mother
from Shrewsbury) ; but by and large these concepts play no significant
role in the thinking of English parents.

Various techniques of shaming a child by holding it up to ridicule
by exposing its punishment to others, by 'sending it to Coventry*,
by dressing boys in girls' clothes or girls in ragged clothes or by
exposing its nakedness are mentioned with disapproval by 9 per cent
of the parents for both boys and girls, with some concentration of
this disapproval in the rural South- West. A very small group (2 per
cent for boys and 3 per cent for girls) approve of shaming techniques,
which, in some other societies, would almost certainly be a major
device for inducing conformity in the young. Such approval as there
is is somewhat concentrated among the elderly; and a reading of
Victorian novels (for example David Copperfield) suggests that this

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

may have been a much more widespread pattern in earlier times,
when 'breaking a child's spirit' was an avowable educational aim.
When such devices are advocated by younger parents they leave a
rather unpleasant overtone; for example a working class father of
three from Headcorn (who finds no punishments to disapprove of)
advocates for both sexes : 'Tan bottom in front of other children to
hurt his or her pride'; a 57-year-old father from Wolverhampton :
'Dress boys in girls clothes'; or a 31-year-old working class father
from Crawley, Sussex:

If picture going is usual, stop it for a time let her go to the club when

its half over, its really horrible to arrive late then have to explain to

your friends why.

There is a moderately sized group (12 per cent in the case of boys
and 10 per cent in the case of girls) who advocate letting the punish-
ment fit the crime' without, in most cases, giving any idea how this
operation is to be performed. This is somewhat more favoured by
fathers than by mothers, especially in the upper middle and lower
middle classes. Some of these parents show considerable under-
standing; a miner with three children from Cullercoats, Northumber-
land writes : 'One cannot generalize, the punishment must take into
consideration the childs temperament'; or a 36-year-old working
class father from Maidstone :

The question cannot be answered honestly, it depends entirely on the

childs character the boy is a human being and not a standard piece of

machinery.

Although the views of such respondents may commend themselves
to those interested in personality development and individual
psychology, they are in sharp contrast with the great majority of
English parents who have most decided views on the suitability or
unsuitability of specific punishments, quite regardless of any difference
in the children's temperaments or characters.

Some type of deprivation is the form of punishment which meets
with the greatest approval and least disapproval from English parents.
Somewhat more than half the parents (58 per cent for boys and
54 per cent for girls) recommend either 'withdrawing privileges',
'forbidding or withdrawing favourite toys or pastimes', 'temporary
stopping of pocket money' or 'going without food' as the most
suitable and efficacious method of disciplining naughty children; if
any form of punishment can be called 'typically English' it would
be some aspect of deprivation. With a single exception, very few
parents indeed disapprove of deprivation, though one or two say

186

CHILDREN U: PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

that stopping pocket money might make children dishonest; but
10 per cent in the case of boys and 7 per cent in the case of girls
disapprove of the withdrawal of food. This disapproval is stressed
somewhat more by fathers than by mothers, by younger rather than
by older parents, and especially by the upper middle class. This con-
centration suggests that the impact of contemporary ideas on nutri-
tion, and possibly rationing, have evoked conscious disapproval of a
type of punishment formerly little regarded. Only a few people (2
per cent for both sexes) mention the withdrawal of food with
approval, and these are significantly and heavily concentrated
among the old, the poor, and the lower working class. It was
apparently those people for whom hunger was a realistic danger
who used temporary hunger as a punishment.

The phrase 'stopping privileges' seems to be worth some con-
sideration, both for its application and implications. Its implications
seem to be that all pleasure is, as it were, conditional, that children's
enjoyments are not 'rights', but are granted by the benevolence of
the parents while the children's conduct is satisfactory, and may
be withdrawn under provocation. This concept of privilege and
conditional enjoyment would appear to have a number of ramifi-
cations. It will be recalled that quite a number of the married respon-
dents2 referred to marital intercourse as 'sexual privilege', apparently
with implications very similar to those of childish pleasure. A great
deal of political discussion has been taken up with the question of
'undeserved privilege', which has served as a moral basis for the
attacks on the more prosperous members of the community and on
at least some aspects of the welfare state. Secondly, if pleasure is
conditional, its maintenance may depend on the absence of super-
vision by possibly censorious authorities; and this may help account
for the very high value so many of the English put on privacy, on
not being overlooked, and for the fact that 'snooper* or 'busybody' is
probably the characteristic most disliked by the majority of English
people.

The actual phrase 'withdrawal of privileges* is used by nearly a
fifth of the parents, nearly twice as often by mothers as by fathers.
Women differ from men in the use of this concept much more
markedly than in any other aspect of the subject; indeed, from the
evidence available, it would appear to be a predominantly feminine
concept, though it is applied by women to the behaviour of both sexes.
As far as the more concrete types of deprivation are concerned,
fathers put a trifle more emphasis than mothers on the temporary
withdrawing or forbidding of favourite toys or pastimes (26 per

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

cent men and 24 per cent women in the case of boys) ; and 1 1 per
cent of both sexes favour the temporary stopping of pocket money.
Punishment by deprivation is somewhat more favoured by parents
of the working classes than by parents of the middle classes, by people
living in the metropolises in the two Southern regions, and has fewer
advocates in the medium-sized towns and the two Northern regions.
Where boys are concerned there is less advocacy of this type of
punishment from parents with incomes between £8 and £15 than
from those with incomes below or above these sums ; in the case of
girls there is much less variation on income level. This may be due
in part to the fact that parents in this medium income range are
more in favour of spanking or caning naughty boys than of punish-
ing naughty girls in this manner; but it does not entirely account
for the discrepancy.

A number of parents specify concretely the type of deprivation
they favour. Thus, a 38-year-old working class mother from Leyton-
stone, Essex:

Older girls being kept away from a special activity she takes part in

and enjoys. The younger ones not being allowed to hear their favourite

programme on wireless or television.

This informant, incidentally, disapproves of father administering
'capital punishment' to his daughters.

A 44-year-old middle class father from Middlesex, with one son
aged 15:

I have found that what hurts him is to stop his pocket money for a
week and no pictures, and give him a good talking to has so far done the
trick. Up till now I have never used a cane on him.

A hairdresser from Fulham:

Stop him from his pleasures, do not give him any pocket money, and
do not allow him to go out with the boys to play for about one week.

Personally I do not believe in Beating them up, although I have a
son myself as you have already seen and he is a tartar. But I am curing
him little by little by not giving as I used to give him.

A lower working class mother from Edmonton:

Depriving him of something he prizes such as a visit to Scouts for a
period of 2 weeks (this I consistently threaten but alas never carry out).

A 33-year-old father from Lancashire:

Deprive her of some beloved plaything for a time, state for how long
and do not return it a second before. If she pulls the cats tail then pull
her hair hard.

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CHILDREN II : PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

The distinctions between deprivation and restraint are in many
cases very slight. I made the distinction that when the parent men-
tioned that food or pastimes were withdrawn it should count as
deprivation, and not otherwise; but I realize that this is arbitrary;
and probably most of the advocacies of restraint should properly be
added to the popular concept of deprivation. Statements like the
following have been calculated as deprivation: Tut to bed without
food till next morning, giving them a good hiding they soon forget
it' (a 41 -year-old working class mother from Malmesbury); 'Locking
her in the bedroom without food will soon bring her to her senses' (a
65-year-old working class mother from near Bournemouth);
'Naughty children should be sent to bed for a period of not less than
12 hours with only liquid food' (an elderly invalid father from
Huddersfield) ; 'Stop him for a time from going out to play or
pictures' (a working class father from Penge).

Statements like the following were on the other hand scored as
restraint: 'I find by keeping my children indoors it cures them more
than by caning them' (a 29-year-old middle class father from Bristol);
Tut in a room with nothing in it until he says he will never do it
again. If he does, repeat the dose' (an 'ordinary working class'
father from Leicester, aged 30); 'I find the best way to punish my
boy was to make him go to bed' (a lower middle class mother from
Blackfield, Southampton); 'Shut up in a room (or lock if necessary)
for an hour alone to think and afterwards to be talked to kindly but
firmly' (a middle class mother from Baling); 'My boy is easy, one
day locked in his bedroom with bread and water would be enough*
(a 26-year-old middle class mother from Hanlow, Beds).

Sending a naughty child to bed is mentioned with approval by
about a tenth of the population for both sexes, somewhat more by
mothers than by fathers and with a marked concentration in the
middle class; young parents mention it more than older ones. Only
a very few people (under 2 per cent) mention it with disapproval; a
middle class father from Bristol says 'I never send my boy to bed as
a punishment, I believe it induces self-abuse as an expression of
self-pity.' Keeping in is slightly more favoured by fathers than by
mothers, especially from the working classes; some 5 per cent
advocate it, about half that number disapprove. Solitary confine-
ment, especially locking children up in dark rooms, finds practically
no advocates (only twenty in all) and is mentioned with emphatic
disapproval by some 10 per cent of the population, concentrated
in the younger members of the middle classes. Fourteen fathers
approve of Borstal or a reformatory for naughty boys and three

189

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

for naughty girls; some 5 per cent mention these institutions with
disapproval, particularly parents of the lower working class, whose
children, presumably, have the most chance of being sent thither.
The chief argument against them is that they tend 'to make a boy
more hardened than before' (a 65-year-old lower working class
mother from Bournemouth). Little can safely be deduced from
negative evidence; but it is interesting to note that lower middle
class parents voice their disapproval of Borstals and the like less than
those of any other social group; in a number of contexts members
assigning themselves to this class appear to approve of representatives
of the state carrying out functions which members of other classes
deem more appropriate to the family.3

Something over a sixth of the population, with slightly more
emphasis from mothers than from fathers, consider that a lecture,
a 'good talking to', or threats of punishment, are appropriate punish-
ments for both sexes. Only a tiny group mention this punishment with
disapproval. It is mentioned conspicuously less often by the in-
habitants of London, by members of the upper middle class, and by
parents between the ages of 24 and 44 than by the rest of the com-
munity. There are small groups (less than 2 per cent in every case)
who mention with approval or disapproval sarcasm, the withdrawal
of love or some form of emotional blackmail. Some of these devices,
when mentioned with approval, are rather distasteful. Thus, a 36-
year-old mother from West Ham:

Give him a pet dog he'll love it. Tell him the dog will have to go if

he does not behave.

A twice married woman from Accrington:

Smack hands and legs and put to bed threaten most loved toy or doll,
to give it to some friend or put it on the fire, most affective for boys and
girls.

A 49-year-old poor mother from Gainsborough, Lines :

Talk to her and tell her she won't always have a mother, that soon
does the trick, I have proved it.

A 27-year-old mother from Sunderland, Durham:

Well, I find if I say I won't speak to Doreen and keep it up its the
best punishment, with Joyce I only have to shout.

A 49-year-old middle class father from Swindon, Wilts:

I found with my son that by ignoring him, not answering his questions
or taking interest in him hurt him more than anything.

Some 5 per cent of the parents mention with disapproval frighten-
ing threats of bogey men, of 'God won't love him, threatening

190

CHILDREN !i: PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

police and prison' (mentioned by a middle class mother from
Manchester) and such like. This is mentioned very little by the
youngest parents, suggesting that it may be a disappearing technique
of disciplining children. Five elderly parents speak of such threats
approvingly. In a number of societies threats of this nature are very
generally employed.4

All the techniques of disciplining children which have so far
been discussed have been considered equally appropriate for boys and
for girls, and, with the exception of the concept of 'withdrawal of
privileges', equally approved by fathers and mothers; there is some
disapproval of punishments which could frighten children— either
frightening threats or locking up in dark rooms— but this does not
appear to preoccupy many parents' thoughts. The case is different w ith
punishments that cause the children physical pain; and it will there-
fore be necessary to analyse these replies somewhat more carefully.

Nearly all English parents make a distinction between physical

punishments inflicted with the open hand— spanking or slapping

and those inflicted either with an instrument — caning, whipping
etc.— or with the fist or foot. The first group of punishments is
approved by quite a number and disapproved of by very few (2 per
cent in the case of boys and 5 per cent in the case of girls, the
objectors chiefly being in the upper middle class); for the second
group of physical punishments there is far more disapproval than
approval, and it is a subject on which many English parents feel
very strongly, whatever their views.

Slapping as an adequate punishment for naughty children is
mentioned only by very few parents (2 per cent for boys, 3 per cent
for girls) and these are predominantly young parents of presumably
young children. Only a tiny group mention slapping with disapproval.
Spanking, on the other hand, has a considerable number of advocates
—21 per cent for boys and 18 per cent for girls; although it nowhere
approaches the figures for the various types of deprivation, it must
be considered the second choice of punishment for most English
parents, especially the fathers of younger children. Men advocate
it quite a little more than women, and the younger parents (under 34)
more than their elders, a figure which was contrary to my expecta-
tions. Londoners approve of spanking much less than the inhabitants
of the rest ^ of the country, and the poorest and best off less than
those with intermediate incomes. As far as social class is concerned,
there is some reversal in the approval of this form of punishment
for boys and girls. For boys there is greatest approval of spanking
in the middle and lower middle class, and somewhat less in the upper

191

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

middle and upper working classes; the upper working class also
disapprove of this punishment for girls, but the upper middle class
approves of it highly, as does the lower middle class. Some 2 per cent
of the parents, mostly elderly and from the upper middle or lower
working classes, think that boys should never be spanked; disap-
proval rises to 5 per cent in the case of girls, with some concentra-
tion in the two Northern regions, the upper middle and upper
working classes.

It is generally assumed in English broadcast, television or music
hall humour that the fact that human beings possess buttocks
is inexhaustibly funny, an endless source of innocent merriment;
and a great number of my respondents used somewhat facetious
synonyms for the area spanked — 'the place nature meant for it',
'where it hurts to sit down', 'the b-t-m' 'the right place', 'the pos-
terior' and so on. On the evidence of this survey it would seem that
it is less likely to be spanking than earlier disciplines which are
responsible for the remarkable amount of affect concentrated on
this portion of the body.

I found it necessary to divide the more severe types of physical
punishment into five categories, based on the words chosen by my
respondents. They are (i) caning, which includes the synonyms of
hiding and tanning; (ii) thrashing, including the use of straps, belts
or whips; (iii) punching, including kicking, shaking and other
violent means of 'beating the kids up5 without the use of instruments;
(iv) birching, including the 'cat' (mentioned by very few respondents)
and flogging; and (v) the afore-mentioned 'corporal' punishment,
which includes punishments inflicted by teachers, the police and other
people outside the family. The vague category of 'cruelty' or
'brutality' was only mentioned with disapproval. On the subject
of severe physical punishment there is the greatest contrast in what
is considered suitable for boys or girls, in the views of fathers and
mothers, and in the amount and intensity of approval or disapproval.
Before the subject is discussed in more detail, it seems useful to
present a synoptic table of the percentages of views held by fathers
and mothers on these punishments.

APPROVE DISAPPROVE

Boys Girls Boys Girls

Father Mother Father Mother Father Mother Father Mother

Caning 9 7 5 4 15 25 14 22

Thrashing 6533 17 9 12 8

Punching 0000 642

Birching 0000 11 6 10 4

'Corporal' 6 2 3 1 12 9 18 12

'Cruelty' ______ n 6 10 4

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CHILDREN II : PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

Whether in approval or disapproval, English men seem to feel
far more strongly about severe physical punishment than do English
women; with the exception of caning, to which a quarter of the
mothers object strongly, the fathers are far more articulate in their
objection to this type of punishment ; it would seem to be disapproved
of by nearly half the community which has any views on the subject
of children's punishments.

Twenty-one per cent of the fathers and 14 per cent of the mothers
approve of some type of severe physical punishment for boys. There
is much more approval for caning in the Southern regions (especially
in the South- West) than there is in the rest of the country, and from
the upper working and lower middle classes. Thrashing on the other
hand has its greatest number of advocates in the North- West, fol-
lowed by the Midlands; it is little advocated in the South. This is the
type of punishment favoured by the lower working class, followed by
the lower middle, middle and working classes; it has no advocates
among the upper middle or upper working classes. It is the younger
parents, under 44, who favour these more precise types of punish-
ments; the older are more likely to advocate 'corporal5 punishment
without further elaboration, particularly in the lower middle and
upper working classes. Parents at the top and bottom of the economic
scale are much less in favour of severe physical punishments than
those of intermediate incomes.

For girls the figures are less in every case (1 1 per cent of the fathers
and 8 per cent of the mothers in all) but the distribution is very
similar. The South- West is particularly in favour of caning, followed
by London and the South-East, and the North- West of thrashing;
the upper middle, upper working and lower middle classes favour
caning and are against thrashing; the younger parents are more in
favour of these punishments than the older. So few parents are in
favour of 'corporal' punishment for girls that little can be learned
from the distribution.

parents who approve of this type of punishment appear to do so
with considerable gusto and moral self-righteousness. The quotations
which follow are only a small selection of those available; and I
have thought it advisable not to give the exact age or the town of
the informants quoted, to avoid any possibility of identification.

An elderly retired engineer from Yorkshire:
A boy should have his 'seat' slapped until he screams for mercy and

make him promise never to do the same thing again.

A middle aged working class man from Lincoln :
[for a boy] Punishment by hand or strap until it hurts, administered

193

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

with shirt off [for girls] Same applys as to boy, but laved across knees
and given smacks on the back-side until she really cried.

A middle-aged separated woman from Warwickshire :

It is good for boys to feel through the skin because thej realize how
serious the crime is, I think a few strokes across the seat of the trousers
is very good — performed effectively.

This informant is against such punishment for girls :

Because they can always seek sympathy from other people if marks
are left.

A young upper working class mother from London with a 7-year-
old girl and two younger boys :

I should hesitate to use the cane on an older girl. My girl of seven has
had it several times and will probably again. I wouldn't cane a girl over
the age of nine — I hope, but might under provocation.

A young lower middle class father from Somerset:

If you are quite certain that he is naughty and understood that his act
was wrong, he should be made to feel pain (cane or stick) so that before
committing wrong again he will firstly consider whether it is worth a
canmg.

A middle-aged 'manual working class' father from Middlesex :

The father should interview the lad alone — explain that the gravity
of the offence demands corporal punishment — tell him he personally
finds it distasteful, but its what his dad did to him, and its for his own
good — and then do it.

A young working class father from Yorkshire:

A good hiding never made me hate mother or father and its a good
thing if administered with justice.

An elderly working class mother from Hampshire:

According to the wise man in Proverbs, a good use of the rod is the
best punishment.

A middle-aged father from Kent:

Same as myself, a damned good hiding. I dont' agree with cruelty,
such as going without meals.

A young middle class mother from Herts:
I do not approve of being brutal, but a good tanning I do not frown on.

An elderly working class father from Notts:

Boys should be thrashed, but avoiding injuries other than flesh weals.
Girls, as for boy, but not after the age of puberty, when exposure might
be regarded as an outrage. After that age deprive them of allowances
and privileges,

194

CHILDREN II : PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

A middle-aged 'middle working class* father of two girls, aged
18 and 13, from Lancashire:

[For a boy] Thrashing with strap, then made to stay in at least two
weeks. Minimum of food during that time. [For a girl] Slapping pos-
terior with hand, whilst girl is completely naked. Kept \\ithout new
clothes and pocket money for three months.

This father of two adolescent girls is opposed to 'striking with
strap or belt or instrument of any kind'.

A fairly young school-master from Middlesex, \\lio describes
himself as 'poor middle class' .

Between the ages of 10 and 16, the most effective and convenient
punishment for boys is undoubtedly a really sharp caning preferably on
the bare buttocks, the latter being highly advisable in order to be able
to guard against undue seventy which goes unnoticed when clothes
are worn or hands are caned.

I strongly disapprove of all 'deprivative' punishments or any long
drawn-out penalty, except any wilful damage should normally be paid
for out of pocket money if possible.

For girls precisely the same as for boys, and I speak as a teacher in a
co-educational secondary grammar school. Indeed, the only distinction
I would make is that, in certain cases, girls need the occasional cor-
rective of a caning at home (or at school) beyond the boys age limit
above of 16, in all cases where a girl's reputation and good name seem
likely to be in jeopardy through headstrong or irresponsible behaviour.

I strongly deprecate allowing any girl culprit to believe that she will
be dealt with any more severely (or more leniently) than her boy
counterpart. There must be no difference made simply because the
offender happens to be a girl. I have personally found the cane suc-
cessful more than once with girl pupils of 17 and, even, in one case 18
years of age.5

I have thought it desirable to present this rather long series of
quotations (they could have covered a number of pages) because
they appear to give insight into the reasons for the very strong and
emotional opposition to severe physical punishments which is voiced
by so many parents. The quotations suggest that at least some English
parents find pleasure without conscious guilt in inflicting severe
pain on children as punishment. The majority disapprove of such
behaviour, but the emphasis with which such disapproval is voiced
suggests the possibility that there is an unconscious temptation
against which such defences have to be erected. In many other
societies, I very much doubt whether such heat and indignation
would be engendered on the subject of severe punishment of children,

195

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

or indeed whether the possibilities would be mentioned in answer
to the vague and open question 'Are there any forms of punishment
you don't approve of for boys or girls?'

If the disapproval of all types of physical punishment is lumped
together, we find that this disapproval is most vehement from the
metropolises and in the Midlands and London and the South-East,
and from parents aged between 24 and 44 earning between £5 and
£12 a week and from the upper working, working and upper middle
classes. There is least objection (though it is still considerable) from
the two Western regions, from people over the age of 65 and under
24, from the £12-£15 a week income group, and in the case of boys
from the lower middle class. Members of this class oppose severe
punishments for girls as much as any other; there is slightly less
objection to severe punishment for girls from the upper middle and
lower working classes. The total figures are in all cases slightly
lower for girls, because the birch, or similar judicial punishments,
are not envisaged in their cases.6

With the exception of caning and 'corporal' punishment, there are
not very marked variations in the amount of disapproval. The upper
middle class (which does not disapprove of caning for either boys
or girls) very strongly disapproves of whipping for both sexes; the
lower middle class mentions whipping very little, but may include
this in 'corporal' punishment, to which it is vehemently opposed.
People over 65 and with incomes over £12 do not voice many objec-
tions to whipping. The upper working class particularly objects to
punching children and knocking them about; this is little mentioned
by the upper middle class (who may not envisage it) or by people
living in the South- West. People from this area also mention the
birch very little; it is the lower working class who are the most
emphatic in their disapproval of this type of punishment. Cruelty or
brutality is most mentioned by members of the upper and lower
middle classes living in the metropolises; it is little referred to by the
young or the poor. 'Corporal' punishment is most strongly objected
to in London and the South-East, in the lower middle and upper
working classes (especially in the case of girls) and by parents with
an income of over £12 a week. It is little mentioned by the very
young, the elderly or the poor, and, in the case of girls, by parents
of the upper middle class. Caning would seem to be little objected
to, in suitable cases, by parents over the age of 45 earning over £12
a week; besides the upper middle class parents, who don't object
at all, members of the lower middle and lower working class mention
this with disapproval relatively little. Parents of the upper working

196

CHILDREN II; PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

class on the other hand object to it very strongly; so do the youngest
parents with low incomes (£5 to £8 a week) and parents from the
Southern regions, particularly the South- West. People from the
North- West mention objections to girls being caned less than those
from any other region.

Where any form of physical punishment is objected to, the objec-
tion is passionate. One of the more temperate is a middle class
father from Middlesex, who writes :

I do not think savage treatment does any good at all and I would

not stand for anyone knocking my boy about however good their

intentions might be, and maintain that all good British men and women

are built in the homes of England.

A curious inversion of the use of physical punishment is told by
a 27-year-old father from a small town near Doncaster:

My eldest daughter did once tell a deliberate he. I took off my belt
let her hold it and forced her to beat me. She has never told a lie since.
The moral being that if she does wrong she hurts her parents.

I don't think it is merely due to the ways in which the questions
were phrased that most English parents seem much less interested
in rewards for their children than they do in punishments ; it seems
more likely that the concept of 'privilege' implies that the ordinary
life of the child is sufficiently rewarding by itself to re-enforce good,
or appro ved-of, behaviour; though deviations from the proper
course call for remedial action, conformity demands relatively
little recognition.7

Nearly a fifth of English parents do not think children should
even be praised in front of others when they have been good and

Figure XXVIII
Question 71 by Question 60

71. Should children be praised in front of others if they are good and helpful?
60. How many children have you ?

Question 60

Question 71

Sand
more

answer

Total

Yes

100

No answer

100

Total

100

197

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

helpful. Twice as many fathers as mothers (22 per cent fathers,
12 per cent mothers) take this austere position; they are somewhat
fewer in the two Southern regions, in the middle class with incomes
of £12-£15 a week, and in the ages between 25 and 34 than they are
in the rest of the country, but there is not a very marked difference.
There is a slight tendency to withhold public praise from only children,
and also from the larger families with five children or more.8

Nearly a quarter of the parents answering the questionnaire said
that they do not, or did not, give their children regular pocket
money when they start going to school. As might be expected,
fathers and mothers are practically in agreement on this point. This
is one of the fairly few situations where there is quite a marked
difference between the middle and working classes (a difference
in giving pocket money of 9 per cent). Income would appear to be
a major determinant here; with a weekly family income of under £8
barely half the parents give their children pocket money. The number
doing so thereafter increases consistently, but even in the income
range of £12-£15 nearly a fifth of the parents say that they do not give
their children any regular pocket money. In this situation the only
child is likely to be favoured and most of them do get pocket-money;
with the big families children are less likely to get any, but this may
well be a direct result from the incidence of other expenses.9

Figure XXIX
Question 60 by Question 72

60. How many children have you?

72. Do you give your children regular pocket-money when they start going to
school ?

Question 72

Question 60

i i

Yes ! No

No answer

Total

58 ! 23

100

58 i 31

100

64 i 31 | 5 I 100

69 ! 28

100

5 and more

54 | 40

100

No answer

53 j 21

100

Total

56 | 26

100

In a number of countries, including the U.S.A., it is customary
to allow children to 'earn* pocket money by doing various odd jobs
round the home; and I tried to discover to what extent this custom

198

CHILDREN n: PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

was prevalent in England. Unfortunately, the question was clumsily
worded, and the interpretation of the answers is therefore somewhat
ambiguous. The question was 'Do you give your children money or
other rewards when they are useful and helpful?5 and the alternative
answers were 'always', 'sometimes', 'occasionally', 'never'. My
intention was that 'sometimes' should imply a usual, but not in-
variable, custom, 'occasionally' an unusual and exceptional action;
but I cannot be sure that my respondents so understood the words.

Mothers and fathers give almost parallel answers; the biggest
contrast is that 19 per cent of the mothers and only 15 per cent of
the fathers 'always" reward their children. Five per cent never do,
with the concentration in the prosperous upper middle class; 26
per cent do so 'occasionally' and 40 per cent 'sometimes'. Twelve
per cent, chiefly the parents of very young children, did not answer
this question, which was inapplicable in their case. If one groups
"always* and 'sometimes' together, one finds there is some concen-
tration of this practice in the middle income group, especially £12-
£15 a week, and that it is less common among the poorest and the
most prosperous but that it is slightly more common in the working
than in the middle class. If one groups 'occasionally* and 'never*
together the contrast in the practice of the social classes comes out
equally strongly: it is the children of the more prosperous middle
classes who do not receive any childish lessons in the connection
between money and work. It should however be emphasized that
this is a relative, and not an absolute contrast; in all classes some-
thing more than half the children do get rewards for work. The
custom of rewarding children is somewhat more frequent when the
families consist of three or more children.10

When I was a child one of the most heavily sanctioned rules of
conduct was that one must never take money from 'strangers';
uncles and aunts, and friends of one's parents who were given such
honorary titles might give one money as presents, as 'tips', but under
no circumstances could one take money for services rendered.11 I
had thought that this would be an area which would show clearly
differences in the upbringing of children of different social classes,
and therefore asked : 'Would you let your children take money for
doing jobs for neighbours such as running errands, watching babies,
or helping them?'

My expectation that this question would reveal strongly marked
class differences was not fully realized. There is a difference of 11 per
cent between middle class parents and working class parents who
would let their children earn in this way, but the absolute figures

199

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

are 43 per cent and 54 per cent respectively. Just over half (51 per
cent) of the parents would permit their children to earn money
in such ways and a third (34 per cent) would not; 15 per cent did
not answer, chiefly the very young parents, for whom the
question was probably not applicable. Gross family income is at
least as great a determinant as class, with permission falling markedly
as income increases; and the greatest absolute contrast is between
regions, with the Midlands, nearly always the most generous portion
of the country, being 12 per cent above the North- West. It seems
possible however that the determining factor here is religion rather
than region or class; Roman Catholics are much less likely to allow
their children to earn money in this way than are members of the
Church of England or other Protestant sects, and the Catholics in
my sample are heavily concentrated in the North-West. In general,
the devout, those who say prayers daily or more often, are less
likely to let children earn money in the fashions described. Family
size seems to make little difference to this aspect of education, though
children of big families have somewhat more opportunity to do so.

Figure XXX
Question 74 by Question 60

74. Would you let your children take money for doing jobs for neighbours ?
60. How many children have you?

Question 60

Question 74

5 and
more

No
answer

Total

Yes

16 8

100

34 16 5

100

No answer

100

Total

33 | 15

100

I also thought, perhaps over-generalizing from my own Edwardian
upbringing, that another marked determinant of social class would
be parental supervision of the children's playmates and the houses
they visited, middle class parents trying to keep their children from
the 'evil communications' which corrupt good manners. In this
respect too my expectations were falsified. None of the material
which I have been able to secure on the less formal aspects of educa-
tion and child rearing shows very marked differences in the familial
upbringing of children in the different social classes. My material
suggests that, in nearly every possible implication of the phrase, it is

200

CHILDREN

PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

Figure XXXI

Question 83 by Question 74
83. Which religion or denomination are you?
74. Would you let your children take money for doing jobs for neighbours ?

Question 74

Question 83

Yes

No answer

Total

'Christian'

100

'Protestant*

100

Church of England

100

Anglican

100

Roman Catholic

100

Methodist

100

Baptist

100

Nonconformist

100

Congregationalist

100

Presbyterian

100

Jewish

100

Spiritualist, etc.

100

Small Protestant sects

100

No answer

100

Total

100

Figure XXXII
Question 74 by Question 60

74. Would you let your children take money for doing jobs for neighbours ?
60 Do you say private prayers ?

Question 60

Question 74

More than
once a
day

Daily

Only in
peril or
gnef

Very
seldom

Never

No
answer

Total

Yes
No

No answer

9
10
10

29
37
31

16
14
14

30
29

15
10
14

1
0

100
100
100

Total

13 | 2

100

the 'tone of voice* rather than the content which determines class
differences in England, apart from the marked differences in formal
education.

Only 13 per cent of the parents who answered (17 per cent did not
answer this question, predominantly the very young and the very
old) say that their children 'never' play with other children whose

201

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

parents they don't know; these parents are mostly under 34, and
therefore presumably their children are still young; though there is
a little concentration in the middle class, it is only a matter of some
4 per cent more than the working class. The remaining two-thirds
of the parents divide equally between the statement that their children
'often' or 'occasionally' play with other children whose parents
they don't know. Seven per cent more parents of the working class
say their children 'often'" play with strangers compared \\ithTthose
of the middle class; there is no significant difference between the
three middle classes in this respect; the upper working class have
the fewest respondents of any class for their children often playing
with strangers, the lower working class far the most. There is no
significant regional difference; on income level those with incomes
over £12 a week have the larger number of 'often' and the smallest
number of 'never', which may possibly be a reflection on the custom
of better-off children attending boarding schools or grammar
schools some distance away from their homes. Parents over 35,
whose children would be more likely to be of boarding school or
grammar school age, show the same distribution. When there are
more than three children in the family, the parents are less likely to
know the parents of their children's playmates — a conclusion which
can cause little surprise.12

One quarter of the population tell their children not to play with
some of the neighbours' children; 16 per cent (again predominantly
the very young, under 24, and the old, over 65) do not answer the
question; the remaining three-fifths of the population do not. By
a small degree, the banning parents are proportionately concentrated
in the upper working class, and are fewest in the lower working
class; there is no difference in working class and middle class patterns
in this respect. There is some concentration of this ban among the
parents aged between 25 and 44 and in the medium income groups;
and there is quite a contrast between the North- West (with 29 per
cent imposing this ban) and the South- West (21 per cent); the re-
maining regions are on the national average.

^ Somewhat more parents (34 per cent) forbid their children
visiting some of their neighbours' houses; and this ban is imposed
slightly more by the working class than by the middle class, and by
parents aged between 24 and 44 with incomes of under £8 a week.
Fifty-four per cent of the population do not impose such a ban;
and the very young and the old, to the number of 12 per cent, do
not answer this question.

Those who do forbid their children to visit neighbours' houses

202

CHILDREN II: PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

were asked why they did so; many gave long replies which when
analysed, produced a base line of 157 per cent answers (from, of
course, 35 per cent of the population). Some 40 per cent of these
answers are based on sanitary grounds — that it is better for children
to be in the open air rather than in houses, or that they should avoid
houses where there is danger of infection. The South- West, followed
by the North- West, seems particularly alive to the danger of infection;
people with incomes of under £8 a week are particularly alive to the
value of the open air, especially those living in big towns. A few
state rationally that their children are too young; and another small
group considers that such bans are ineffective. An example of this
last attitude is a working class mother from Huddersfield:

I sometimes feel I would like to forbid her on account of 'language'

and 'cheek' allowed to pass unchecked, but realize she will have to meet

all kinds of people when grown-up.

Apart from such straightforward considerations, the major com-
plaints centre directly or indirectly round the adults, rather than the
children — that they don't keep their house properly, that they drink
or use bad language, or are sexually immoral and similar complaints.
These complaints are made predominantly by the working class
(44 per cent) followed by the lower middle class (38 per cent);
only 31 per cent of the middle class make this complaint, and 11 per
cent of the lower working class. There is a concentration of these
complaints from the North- West and the medium-sized towns,
and from parents aged between 35 and 44. It is only a minority
which tries strongly to keep their children from evil communications;
but within that minority a significant group are parents of the
respectable working class trying to keep their children away from
the disreputable working class, particularly in the towns of the
North-West. Exemplifying this attitude is a 49-year-old working
class father from near Barnsley, Lanes:

Swearing in some homes, dirtiness in others loose morals in a lot of
homes too many people in this village live with other men's wives
openly, and don't seem to mind who knows. Lodgers sleeping with
women when husband on nights etc. etc.

A 46-year-old working class father from Kent:

Having been in one or two houses I knew that they would be a bad
influence, very untidy, no restraint of language, etc., this is of course
exceptional and not the general thing.

A father from Buckingham:

Lack of responsibility by parents, factory shop language used in
front of kiddies, children not clean. Parents in my opinion, being of low

203

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

mentality by allowing their nippers to shout, swear at them. This, I
must hasten to add, is not general, but applies to three neighbours only.
Oddly enough, in each case, they found it necessary to marry in haste.

Six per cent, somewhat concentrated in the rural South-West,
suspect the neighbours of pumping visiting children about matters
which the respondents would like to keep private; and a further
2 per cent think that children are liable to provoke quarrels between
the adults; no members of the upper middle or upper working classes
voice these suspicions. An 'ordinary working class' father from
Halifax writes :

The type of neighbours we have would ask the child questions

regarding happenings in her home.

A woman from Leighton Buzzard, Beds :

This is a sticky question. Possibly the only truthful reason is because
I do not wish these certain neighbours to inquire of our private affairs,
nor do I wish to have more than a nodding acquaintance with them
myself.

A 43-year-old working class father from Averley:

Only to get to know your business, some neighbours invite children
to their homes to pump them.

A working class man from London :

Their reason for inviting my oldest child into their homes is to try
and find out why my wife and I separated.

A 43-year-old working class father from Wednesbury, Staffs :

My boy is what you would call artfull and if anything is amiss with
their children its 10 to one they say he is the cause of it.

A working class father from Slough:

When playing with certain neighbours children, mine always seem
to be in the wrong if anything untoward happens. This, according to
these neighbours, necessitates their interference in the childrens
squabbles. As this has given rise to high words, we have forbidden
children to go round these particular houses.

A working class father from Nottingham:

Some of the neighbours think their children are made of Gold and
must not get Dirty. I forbid them not to visit neighbors Houses because
I no they are not wanted there.

Some 21 per cent of the parents who impose a ban, considerably
more mothers than fathers, consider children a nuisance, and forbid
their children to visit neighbours on these grounds. The most usual
phrasing is that they don't want their children to be a nuisance to

204

CHILDREN II : PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

others; a small group say frankly that they don't want to be bothered
with the neighbours' children. A few advance the maxim that one
should keep oneself to oneself; and there are some complaints that
the neighbours don't welcome children and are unkind to them.
These attitudes are predominantly middle class; they are not men-
tioned at all by the upper middle class, and relatively little by the
upper working class. It is above all the younger parents (under 45)
with incomes under £12 a week, who make such statements; there
are relatively few in the North- West, or in London and the South-
East.

Typical of such attitudes is the 51-year-old middle class father from
Ruislip Manor:

To stop them making a nuisance of themselves to the neighbours.
My kids are pushing.

A 41-year-old working class mother from West Bromwich:
Because I have enough of other people's children in my house.

A working class father from Leyton, Essex:

Children pick up little bits of information which they repeat. Also
they are inclined to make a habit of visiting once started. Children
seem to like other people's food better than their own. . . . They
invariably come home with some new habit, or a grumble after visiting
neighbours, so the best cure is not to let them start it.

A 33-year-old working class father from Castle Cresley, Derby:

It hurts their feelings when the neighbours shut them out when they
are not wanted. In the case of my daughter they are jealous because she
has a mop of curly hair and a sunny disposition.

A 36-year-old father of four girls from St. Helens, Lanes :

When I came out of the army, I was coming down the street with my
pack on my back when I saw my eldest daughter standing outside one
of the houses opposite to where I live. She hadn't spotted me so decided
to creep behind her, as I got near I could see her look at a small doll
that was in the doorway of this house, with such longing that I stopped,
just then the Lady of the house happened to spot her and with utter
ruthlessness picked the doll up and said to my daughter run home you
can't have our Mary's doll, if your daddy wasn't a soldier he could buy
you one like Mary's daddy's done. Believe me sir, with God's help none
of my girls have had to want for dolls or toys of any neighbour since
that day.

Some 12 per cent of the parents say they do not want their children
to follow bad examples, without, in most cases, specifying whether

205

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

the exemplars are adults or children. This phrasing is particularly
favoured by parents aged over 45 living in big cities, and especially
by the upper working class. It is not a phrase which is used at all
by members of the upper middle class, and little by the lower middle
class or the most prosperous members of the community. Some of
the more prosperous parents, particularly in the middle and lower
middle classes, keep their children away from neighbours because
they want them to speak 'nicely'; but this only accounts for 7 per
cent of the people who impose a ban in these classes.

Finally there are the parents who consider the children undesirable
companions because they are dirty or use bad language, are rough
and unruly, cheeky and undisciplined, immoral or light-fingered.
These charges are made by 33 per cent of the parents imposing a
ban, fathers and mothers in nearly equal numbers, though, as has
already been stated, fathers are particularly concerned about swear-
ing. There is a concentration of these complaints from the lower
middle class and from people with incomes between £8 and £12, but
there are also a considerable number of such complaints from the
working and lower working class. The North-West once again leads
with these complaints, followed by the South-West. There are more
complaints of children with bad characters from the smaller towns
than from the metropolises.

Since these complaints of undesirable behaviour provide inferen-
tially a good deal of information about the ideals parents have about
their own children, it seems worth while giving a representative
selection of these explanations.

A 33-year-old middle class mother from Coventry:

One child in particular; goes into other people's houses when she
knows they are out, tells lies, careless of other children's toys, constantly
breaking and losing them. Nearly four years older than my elder girl
and a bad example. One house in particular; Occupants like and
encourage children but unable to speak without swearing. Don't wish
my children to acquire this habit.

A working class father from Rochester, Kent :

Some parents have no control over their children these children in the
eyes of a child have a wonderful time naturally it would disturb my own.

A 43-year-old father from Kidderminster:

Because the Children, through the neglect of the parents have been
to the Juvenile Courts, a number of times, the children due to their
Home Life, are little rogues and run the streets at all hours, they draw
my boy like a magnet, and through them he also got into trouble.

206

CHILDREN II : PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

A 33-year-old working class father from Padham, near Burnley:
This is a \ery bad district and but for housing shortage would have
moved long ago, I forbid my children to visit the neighbours because
they learn bad habits from them, and because their children retaliate
and we have enough of our own.

A young father from Leigh, Lanes:

One of the kids he plays with, his mother works and his Grandmother
lets him rome about any where, he gives cheek to his elders and he will
land himself m trouble, mind you I blame the grandmother.

A 41-year-old working class father from Ilkeston, Derby:

We have one boy who is easily led and very often gets into mischief
with some boys. We try to keep him away, but we don't always succeed.
As a matter of fact just this one boy we have tned to choose his friends.
We do not worry at all over the other two boys.

A young middle class mother from Hereford:

1 arn trying to teach my children to be clean. Not to be rude and
manners, but if they visit my neighbours all my teaching will be undone
as they are dirty m their ways and rude and their talk is filthy. Then-
mother does not bother with them.

A working class father from Bradford :

They might hear indecent talk or bad language. In one case they
certainly would. I don't want them to swear. They think I don't.

A 25-year-old mother from Leicester who describes herself as
'working class with a desperate urge to better myself :

My daughter never goes out of the front gate unless I take her, she
is quite (happy) to play with her toys by herself. In any case most of the
children who live round here have been brought up to be rough and
cheeky and I should hate my daughter to hear some of the words they
use. Im not blaming the children dont think that its not their fault but
all the same I shouldn't like to think my little girl would be the same.

A father from Fulham, earning a good income but who describes
his class position as 'very modest' :

Our child plays only with our friend's children, he's never allowed in
the road to play. The neighbour's children are not the type we want
our little boy to mix with. Besides being filthy they use bad language
and have very bad behaviour. We speak to no one in this road, so the
child does not visit any neighbours houses, with the exception of only
one friend who lives in walking distance.

A 30-year-old Birmingham mother of two girls:

I do not allow them to play in streets or other people's house's till
I know them, they play very well together and never ask to go elsewhere,
the children are always in the Roads, the proper place is bed at six till

207

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

they are old enough to realize bad from good, then they can pick
decent friends, I think more children stay up later than ever probably
because they both work and its late when they get home, and I dont
believe in pictures, only a circus or pantomime.

A coal miner from West Melton, Rotherham:

There are some people who Have no control over their children, and
allow them to Have too much of their own road, which is bad for
Discipline, they also allow them to have Dirty Habits, therefore we as
Parents must use a little Discrimination.

The implicit belief in the foregoing quotations (as well as in the
very large number from which they were selected) that parents are
responsible for their children's good qualities and failings is also ex-
pressed in the reasons chosen to explain the post-war increase in crime,
especially among young people.13People were asked to choose between
seven popular 'explanations' of the increase in juvenile crime (more
precisely, increase in police charges). Three of these reflected one way
or another on parental care and responsibility, two dealt with state
institutions, one with symbolic material and one with religion. The
statements, among which respondents were asked to choose the one
which seemed to them most important were:

Modern parents aren't strict enough.

Children whose fathers were in the Forces didn't have proper

discipline.

Children who were evacuated weren't properly looked after.

Modern schools aren't strict enough.

People got into bad ways in the Forces.

Young people follow the bad example of crime films and crime

stories in books and on the radio.

People are neglecting religion.

Over half (56 per cent) of the respondents chose the statements
imputing responsibility to the parents, the married being somewhat
more insistent than the single. The most popular statement, held
equally by men and women, is that modern parents aren't strict
enough; 29 per cent of the population, extremely evenly distributed
in every category except age, opts for this answer. The young, under
18, do not much hold this view; it is most highly approved by people
between the ages of 25-34. More men than women (26 per cent men,
20 per cent women) consider that children whose fathers were in
the forces did not have proper discipline; it seems understandable
that men should rate the father's influence more highly. This view-
point is slightly more highly stressed by people between the ages
of 18 and 34; there is some emphasis in the upper working class.

208

CHILDREN HI PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

Only 4 per cent of both sexes thought that evacuated children (pre-
sumably separated from their mothers' care) were not properly
looked after; it is mostly Londoners who support this notion.

There is very little tendency to blame state institutions for juvenile
delinquency. Four per cent of the population think modern schools
aren't strict enough, and 8 per cent that people got into bad ways
in the forces ; rather more men than women hold this view.

Rather curiously, it is the young under 18, who most tend to
blame the bad examples of films, books and radio; 20 per cent of
this age group choose this explanation, whereas their elders vary
between 10 and 12 per cent, the latter figure being the overall total.
Few persons in the upper middle or upper working classes hold this
view.

Twenty-one per cent of the women, compared with 14 per cent of
the men blame juvenile delinquency on the neglect of religion. This
view particularly commends itself to the upper middle class and the
under 18's ; it finds little support from the lower working class, and not

Figure XXXIII
Question 79 (first choice} by Question 64

79. One reads a lot in the papers about the post-war increase in crane, especially
among young people. Please mark which of the following reasons seem to you most
important.

64. Who is the proper person to punish a child who has done something really bad?

Question 64

Question 79

Mother

Father

Teacher

Others

Total

answer

People got into bad ways in the

Forces

106

Children whose fathers were in

the Forces didn't get proper

discipline

105

Children who were evacuated

weren't properly looked after

1 112

Modern parents are not strict

enough

105

Modern schools are not strict

enough

—

110

Young people follow the bad

example of crime films and

crime stories

106

People are neglecting religion

104

No answer

—

106

Total

105

209

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

very much from the metropolises. Quite a few respondents altered
the wording to 'Religion is neglecting the people' before marking
this choice.14

A correlation between the reasons chosen for juvenile delinquency
and the question where authority should reside in the family shows
at least considerable internal consistency on the part of the respon-
dents. Those who think that the father should be the chief discipli-
narian emphasize that children whose fathers were in the forces
did not get proper discipline, and secondly that modern parents
are not strict enough ; those who say that the mother should punish
emphasize that evacuated children were not properly looked after,
that people got into bad ways in the forces, and also the bad influence
of crime films and crime stories; the small group who think that
teachers should do the punishing find that modern schools aren't
strict enough.

NOTES TO CHAPTER TWELVE

1 See also p. 203.

2 Seep. 133.

3. See e.g. p. 170.

4. For example, the male bogeyman of France: Croque-Mitame, Lustucru, Le
loup-garou, etc, etc See Metraux and Mead, Themes in French Culture (Stanford
University Press, 1954).

5. It does not seem necessary to take this respondent's statement as referring to
actual behaviour in a secondary co-educational school in Middlesex. What is being
studied are the views of parents, not the practice of schools. Besides respondents of
this nature, five male respondents (out of about 6,000) indulged in flagellation fantasies
in some other portion of the questionnaire, mostly to the questions 'What do you
think are the three most important qualities a wife should have?' or 'What do you
think goes to make a happy marriage?'

6 It is interesting to compare these figures with those given in A Survey of Rewards
and Punishments in Schools, a report of the National Foundation for Educational
Research (Newnes, 1952). Although the absolute figures cannot be usefully compared,
the areas of emphatic approval or disapproval of corporal punishment seem to be
very similar.

7. It seems possible that this treating of 'ordinary' life as gratifying in itself might
account for the peculiar emotion called 'boredom' felt by many adults when this
ordinary life is disturbed by the presence of strangers. Many people seem to consider
meeting people they do not know or with whom they are not intimate 'boring', even
though the alternative to these meetings is not more, but less, social activity. I have
on occasion discussed with people used to living in Asia or Africa the politically
disastrous custom of excluding all members of the native society from the various
British social clubs; intelligent people, who admit how indefensible such a policy is
from nearly every point of view, excuse it on the ground of the boredom which would
be evoked by the presence of strangers among one's familiar colleagues. In many cases
this certainly did not imply that the speaker was not interested m any people who
were not English, the presence of others would disrupt the even tenor of 'ordinary*
life; and the displeasure felt by this disruption is described as 'boredom*. Shyness is
presumably another component in this emotion.

210

CHILDREN II : PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

8. This question was also asked in the field survey with somewhat strongly con-
trasting results. Over a third (36 per cent) of the parents interviewed said that children
should never be praised publicly, men and women holding these views in equal
numbers. The North-East and North, parents aged between 45 and 64, and members
of the upper working and lower working classes emphasize particularly the undesir-
ability of praising children. Members of the upper middle and lower middle classes
are in favour of praise when due.

9. In the field survey, the parents once again proved themselves more severe, with
40 per cent saying they did not give their children pocket money; but there is here a
marked discrepancy between the sexes (fathers 35 per cent 'no', mothers 45 per cent)
which one would not expect if there were any regularity in the custom; it seems at
least possible that the interview situation made the interviewees take the question too
personally, and that mothers answered 'No' when not they, but their husbands, were
the givers of weekly pocket money. The contrast between middle and working' class,
and the close correlation between income and the giving of regular pocket money is
quite parallel with the mam survey, though the absolute figures are somewhat different.
In the field survey there is a marked regional contrast between the generous
Midlands and the withholding North-West which has no parallel at all with the main
sample.

10. In the field survey the parents were much more likely to choose polar answers.
Twenty-seven per cent said they 'always1 gave such rewards and 18 per cent 'never';
27 per cent said 'sometimes' and 20 per cent 'occasionally* ; 8 per cent, again chiefly
the young, did not answer. If the 'always' and 'sometimes' are calculated together, in
contrast with the 'occasionally' and 'never' the distribution for income and social class
is fairly parallel. In the field survey, once again, there is a marked regional contrast
which has no parallel m the mam survey; very few parents from the North- West
(42 per cent) and very many parents from the South-West (70 per cent) say they give
rewards 'always' or 'sometimes'. Parallel figures for the main survey are 58 and 55
per cent. The discrepancy is so great that I suspect it of being an artifact of the record-
ing of the interviews.

11. An illustration of this apparently widespread attitude can be found in E.
Nesbit's The Treasure Seekers, originally published 1899, Chapter IV, 'Good Hunting*.

12. In the field survey once again parents tend to choose polar answers: 41 per cent
say 'often', 14 per cent say 'occasionally', 35 per cent 'never' and 10 per cent do not
answer. The number of parents saying 'never* is so high as to seem inherently im-
probable;^ many of the respondents giving this answer were women (40 per cent, con-
trasted with 3 1 per cent men) ; and it seems at least possible that the mothers would
think it would reflect on their maternal care if they said they did not know their
children's playmates. The 'often' answers follow the same class, income and age distri-
butions as in the mam survey; but once again there is a regional difference not paral-
leled in the mam survey, with relatively far fewer parents from the two Northern
regions saying they don't know their children's playmates than from the rest of the
country.

13. The views which follow are those of the total sample, including the unmarried
and the childless. All the previous portions of this chapter are based on the view of
parents with living children.

14. This question was also asked in the field survey, with the added refinement that
a number of cards were printed with the questions in different order, in case the rank
order of the questions were influential. There is a marked difference in the emphasis
given to two of the choices. The field survey gives less importance to the lack of
discipline for children whose fathers were in the forces; this was an answer particu-
larly chosen by men who are much less represented in the field survey than in the
main sample (47 per cent and 56 per cent respectively). Secondly, much greater em-
phasis is placed on the corrupting influence of fantasy. This might be an artifact of
the interviewing situation, which removes blame both from the interviewee and the

211

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

absent spouse. Otherwise the figures are strikingly similar. These are the gross figures
for the field survey, the main sample figures being added in brackets and italics.

People got into bad ways in the forces 5 per cent (8 per cent]

Children whose fathers were in the forces didn't get

proper discipline 15 „ „ (22 per cent}
Children who were evacuated weren't properly looked

after 3 „ „ (4 per cent}

Modern parents aren't strict enough 29 „ (29 per cent)

Modem schools aren't strict enough 10 ,, ,, (4 per cent}

Young people follow bad example of films, etc. 20 ,, ,, (12 per cent}

People are neglecting religion 16 ,, ,, (17 per cent}

No answer 2 „ „ (3 per cent}

212

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

LAW AND ORDER

I HAVE ALREADY stated that there are relatively few attitudes and
beliefs or practices which are subscribed to by two-thirds or more
of a population so diversified as the English. Besides the attitudes to
child training and childish character, already described, another
subject on which three-quarters of the population, who have any
views at all, are in agreement is enthusiastic appreciation of the
English police.

This result, I admit, came as a big surprise to me, perhaps the
greatest reversal of expectations which occurred in the whole research.
I had asked the question 'What do you think of the police?'1 with
the expectation that a very considerable number of the respondents
would take advantage of the anonymous questionnaire to express
feelings of hostility to the representatives of the state, of law and
order, of the repressive aspects of society. I had also thought that a
considerable number of people would give their replies a political
tinge, referring to one law for the rich and another for the poor, or
describing the police as the servants of the capitalist class. Such
replies did occur, but only from a very small proportion of the
population, chiefly those describing themselves as upper working
class; some 18 per cent of the population had criticisms to make
of the police (5 per cent did not answer and 2 per cent gave irrelevant
replies) but, as will be shown in more detail later, these criticisms
were mostly on points of character or behaviour, that the police as
individuals are 'no better than anybody else', on the human failings
of persons in the police. There is extremely little hostility to the
police as an institution.

As far as I know, no parallel survey of attitudes to the police has
been undertaken in any other country; but all the evidence available
to me from my own research or observations or those of others*
strongly suggest that the amount and extent of enthusiastic apprecia-
tion of the police is peculiarly English and a most important com-
ponent of the contemporary English character. To a great extent,
the police represent an ideal model of behaviour and character, an
aspect about which many respondents are articulate.

An attempt was made to divide the favourable judgments into
'enthusiastic' and 'appreciative'; but the division is so subjective
that little value can be put upon it. For what the figures are worth,

213

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

men, particularly the married, are more enthusiastic than women;
there is most enthusiasm in the lower middle class, in the two
Southern regions and in those with incomes of under £12 a week.
When all the positive judgments are put together nearly all these
differences disappear; there is, for example, only 1 per cent difference
between men and women (73 and 74 per cent respectively). By
nearly every criterion, the positive attitudes are most evenly dis-
tributed; the only areas in which there is a variation of 3 per cent
or more from the national average are the regions with very high ap-
preciation in the North-West (78 per cent) and low appreciation in
the North-East and North (69 per cent) ; and in the extremes of the
social classes, the upper middle having 79 per cent, and the lower
working class 65 per cent; the class differences are not very surprising.
Young people under 18 are also particularly enthusiastic, with 82
per cent positive; after the age of 18 there is very little variation.

Only a battery of quotations can give some impression of the
strength of the emotions evoked. A 28-year-old 'higher working
class' married woman from Fonnby, Liverpool:

I believe they stand for all we English are, maybe at first appearance
slow perhaps, but reliable stout and kindly, I have the greatest admira-
tion for our police force and I am proud they are renowned abroad.

A 38-year-old married man from New Maiden:

The finest body of men of this kind in the world. Portraying and
upholding the time tested constitution, traditions and democracy of
the British Way of Life combining humble patience with high courage
and devotion to duty.

A 31-year-old married working class man from Fishburn, Durham:
Overworked, underpaid body of men with a high sense of duty. One
of the chief reasons why this is such a pleasant country to live in. I take
my hat off to them.

A 27-year-old single working class woman from London:

They are a most useful, helpful, and necessary body of men and
women, I am proud to belong to a country which has such a fine police
force.

An old married man aged 72, who describes himself as 'under dog
(serious)' from Binfield, Bucks:

'Essential' — I would put them on a par with Teachers* as the absolute
1st grade for preferential human unity.

A 19-year-old youth from Brentwood, Essex, of the middle class:
I think its the best thing that civilization has done for anybody next
to science.

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LAW AND ORDER

Many of the respondents take a deep personal pride in the inter-
national reputation of the English police forces; several, particularly
young men whose service careers took them overseas, proudly
contrast them with the police of other lands.

A working class bachelor from Norwich:

They are the best in the world. The most understanding capable and
tolerant. I have met Canadian, American, Indian and Malayan but our
'Bobbies' are the best.

A married upper working class man from Peckham:

I have travelled abroad considerably during the war and have seen
all sorts of different police forces and say that our police are much more
sensible, considerate and efficient than any others I have seen.

A 19-year-old middle class youth:

Very good, if not excellent. Experience in Sweden, where police are,
unfortunately, slightly Gestapo-styled, strengthened my belief that the
British 'cop' — friendly, understanding — is a great servant of the public
— and not his master.

A 16-year-old working class girl from West Ewell:

I think they are a wonderful and unbeatable group of people, we have
the best in the world, and I hope when I'm old enough to become one
of them.

A young working class lad from Wolverhampton:

We're led to believe that Britain has the best police force in the
world. This I believe simply due to the fact that we Britishers do, and
have to, respect the law, who give us a true sense of freedom and
security.

The psychological reassurance which the police provide is another
theme which many people elaborate. A 20-year-old bachelor from
Shepton Mallet, Somerset, who says of himself 'I belong to the
common people*, writes :

Slow but efficient. The sight of a policeman gives a sense of security
to every British citizen. This is often felt only subconsciously, but deep
down it must be realized how much we depend on our police force in
order to go about our daily activities in peace and free from friction.

A 36-year-old miner from Barnsby, Yorks:

Excellent and woe betide many people today if we were without a
good Police Force and ours is only a small mining village.

A 22-year-old unmarried working class girl from Hendon:

I think the police do a wonderful job, and would never think of
criticizing them. Although I have no reason at all for fearing them, I
always regard them with respect and a certain amount of awe.

215

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

The personal character of the members of the police forces also
evokes a great deal of admiration and approbation, though this is
also the chief grounds for most of the criticism made of them.

A 33-year-old working class bachelor from Sutton-in-Ashfield:

A necessary body of men and women carrying out a difficult job
extremely well as they themselves are human, and subject to human
thoughts, envies and whims.

A 67-year-old Worthing, Sussex, widower:

In the course of my duties as a Cinema attendant, I meet members
of the police force nearly every day. I find them pleasant companions
and interesting to talk to. As regards efficiency I consider them superior
to those of any other country.

An 18-year-old unmarried London girl:

Oh I like them. (I wish I could marry one.) I think that policemen
aren't any different to other men in the walks of life.

A 34-year-old Birmingham bachelor who describes his social class
as 'Upper Middle, Spot of decayed gentry' :

They have a rotten job, which they do very well (being English) but
these big clumsy men have not the feel or intelligence to deal with small
crime and ordinary criminals like most of us. The nice ones are very
very nice and the bad ones horrid (like guardsmen).

A 30-year-old unmarried Civil Servant from Surbiton, who
describes himself as a 'low paid relic of the Bourgeois intelligentsia' :
Underpaid and overworked hi dealing with masses of petty bureau-
cracy. Insufficient encouragement to the enterprising types. Admire
them for the results they get, and also for surprisingly little evidence of
'fiddling' among the Police force itself.

A 47-year-old married man from Greenford:

I think the police still command the respect of the general public, and
they effectively uphold the dignity of the law. Despite the fact that some
wartime and post-war laws tend unwittingly to make criminals of us all.

Thirteen per cent of the population qualify their judgments with
some criticism or hostility; another 2 per cent give brief neutral
comments like 'all right'. These mixed judgments are made some-
what more by men than by women, especially in the upper working
and lower middle classes with incomes of £12-£15 weekly. Typical
of such mixed judgments is the 31-year-old working class wife from
near Tamworth, Staffs:

They are very smart and very efficient, but knowing 2 policemen very

well, and guessing they are all more or less the same, I cannot say they

are altogether fair or honest.

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LAW AND ORDER

A small farmer from Leicester:

Having worked with them, majority decent human folk — the rest
not worth a dam fortunately these are in the minority. The British
Force as a whole I believe the best in the world.

A 46-year-old educated middle class woman from Folkestone :

On the whole I consider them a fine body of men ; though, when I go
av*ay I never tell the police, as I think when they know others (un-
desirable) get to know too.

A 21 -year-old married working class woman from a village near
Newark :

I think the police in big towns and cities do a grand job and their
work is hard, but in villages such as this we become their friends and
they ours, and they often turn a blind eye.

A 25-year-old married man from Birmingham:

I have a very high opinion of them yet I have had one approach me
(when I was working in a shop) and tell me who he was, at the same
time asking for a few extra eggs.

A 29-year-old middle class London man:

I consider they are the best in the world but subject to human
thoughts and failings and bribed and corrupted on many occasions by
wealth, position or friends (I can prove this).

A 32-year-old single woman from Sheffield:

Having worked with two ex-policemen for two years I would say I
find them, slow, ponderous, niggly about detail, but they get there in
the end. Apart from these two specimens I have a great admiration for
the force as a whole — there must be some intelligent men among them
somewhere.

A 24-year-old working class mother from Birmingham:

Majority of them show off when hi uniform as if everyone should be
afraid of them. Yet they seem kind and considerate to children. My
children love to say Hello to Policemen and it isn't very often they are
ignored.

A 53-year-old married woman from Nottingham:

Taken on the whole they are a grand set of people. The few exceptions
are some youngsters who try to show some authority, which make you
feel afraid.

An upper middle class bachelor aged 21 from Barnstaple, Devon:
Living with two young policemen and in the home of an ex-sgt. also
working in close co-operation with them, I find them to be no better
than 'the man in the street.'

217

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A few respondents comment on the alleged class-consciousness
of the police without any marked bitterness; for example, a 37-year-
old working class man from Gosport:

Very helpful, but I do object to the way they speak to the different

classes. Upper or Middle Class it is 'Excuse me, Sir', Working Class it

is 4Oi'.

A 39-year-old working class Londoner :

On the whole a fine body of men, but are inclined to judge the clothes
and not the man, i.e. a poorly dressed man, carrying a suitcase late at
night would be challenged, not so a well-dressed one.

A 39-year-old lower middle class wife from Birmingham:

I think they have two sets of laws (or rules), one for the rich and one
for the poor, both in and out of prison. The average policeman is a
'scrounger' but otherwise very capable of carrying out his duties.

A fairly common theme in the criticism of the police is criticism
of the activities they undertake, or fail to undertake, as if (in the eyes
of these respondents) the individual police man or woman, or at
most the local authority were responsible, not only for the action
taken, but for the law itself. When the questionnaire was being
answered, in January 1951, newspapers and wireless news bulletins
were much taken up with the attempt to recover the Coronation
Stone (the Stone of Scone) which had been removed from Westminster
Abbey by Scottish nationalists. This police search for the Coronation
Stone was mentioned by a very considerable number of corres-
pondents, and with unanimous disapproval; the police, they averred,
should give up such nonsense and concentrate on catching serious
criminals. Since the incident is now very much past history, it does
not seem worth while giving any verbatim quotations; but as far
as my respondents are indicative, not a single English man or woman
stated that the search for this symbolic piece of masonry was worth
the trouble and hullabaloo, and a very considerable number stated
definitely that it was not.

Apart from this incident, the greater number of such complaints
centred around the enforcement of the traffic laws. There appears to
be a fairly widespread feeling that the laws about the speed limit,
parking of vehicles, lights on vehicles and the like are devices for
petty persecution, and with no relevance to the convenience or safety
either of the respondents or of the community as a whole. This
sentiment is sufficiently widespread to suggest that a very indifferent
job of public relations has been performed, and to allow the suspicion
that this may be one cause of the extremely high accident rate on the
English roads.

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LAW AND ORDER

A few examples will illustrate a fairly general trend.

A 43-year-old upper working class wife from Enfield:

I think the Police pay too much attention to little offences, like car
lights and riding bikes on pavements. I used to live in a house where
a policeman lived, and when he was on night duty he used to slip home
to bed and get back in time for his sgt. to see him on his beat.

A working class woman from near Manchester:

Well they do a good job in some places such as London and the big
cities but here they are never there when wanted but just catch poor
people pinching a bit of coal or trying to do motorists.

A 26-year-old upper working class man from Sidcup:

Not Much! If they can get promotion generally for pinching some
poor little man they would gladly do so. While the big offenders should
be pursued more ruthlessly. Too much time is taken up with minor
traffic offences on the roads. Freemasonary should be barred in the
Police Force.

A 23-year-old lower middle class bachelor from Bristol:

Helpful when visiting strange towns and their presence comforting
in crowds and heavy traffic conditions. They do tend however to report
a case when a warning would suffice and this applies particularly to town
police. This is, presumably, mainly due to promotion being partially
based on the number of addresses in the rate book, showing that the
P.C. knows his job.

A 22-year-old upper working class man from Millom, Cumber-
land:

A very good Force, but sometimes they close their eyes to things
where action should be taken immediately, as in the case of the whole-
sale prostitution in some of our big cities.

Some 5 per cent of the population is really hostile to the police
and with about 1 per cent of these the hostility reaches an almost
pathological level. With such small numbers there is little that can
be usefully said about distribution; there is a little concentration in
the Midlands and the North-East and North of such hostility, which
is very little voiced in South- West; few members of the upper middle,
and rather a larger number of the lower working class voice such
feelings.

The pathological hatred occasionally reaches appalling lengths;
this can be exemplified by a 64-year-old professional woman from
Polegate who writes:

I'd like to murder every one I meet. (This is not a joke). I laugh every

time I hear or read of a policeman battered. My experience is that a large

proportion are a BAD LOT.

219

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

More frequently this hatred is a symptom of a political philosophy
based on hatred, whose proponents consider themselves leaders of
the working class. In the words of Saki's epigram, though they may
consider themselves born leaders, they have found very few people
born to follow them, as far as this survey is an indication. A 55-year-
old married man from Gretton, Northants, 'upper working class' :
I hate the Police and all they stand for, which among other things

is the subjugation of the working classes so that the idle rich can live

their useless lives in comfort and security.

A 27-year-old married man from Stoke Newington, 'militant
working class' :

As at present constituted, they are the most vicious anti-working
class body of people in the whole country. They seem to be biased in
favour of the people who can afford to pay fines as an alternative to
jail.

More usually, the small group who are hostile to the police base
this hostility on the belief that they misuse their power, are un-
scrupulous, avaricious or dishonest, suspicions which I believe
would be much more widely voiced in most other societies. A 37-
year-old middle class man from a Staffordshire village writes :

Generally speaking they are perverters of the truth with no respect

for the 'oath' — governed by 'promotion complex' as a force efficient

without scruple. This opinion based on private associations from

childhood.

A prosperous 23-year-old working class man from Lancashire:

I am of the opinion that the majority of the police force joined for the
security the job offers and not because of any thoughts of preventing
crime. I dislike some of the petty offences that are reported. A policeman
friend of mine once told me 'my inspector said it was about time I had
a case or else pack the job\

A 28-year-old working class man from Newcastle-on-Tyne:

Like everything and everyone they are open to a fiddle. They don't
look for trouble or crime against society, but you have to bring it to
them, explain about it, put it on their doorstep. Apathetic is the word.
I don't think some of these young coppers even know what they are
supposed to do. Cant get into our Bus canteen for them swigging tea.

A 36-year-old unmarried working class man from a village near
Normanton, Yorks:

My opinion is, and six years R.N. Service to give me backing. Give
the majority of Englishmen the least bit of authority and they become
more or less "The Great I Am'.

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LAW AND ORDER

A 19-year-old working class girl from Leeds:

Having had a great deal of experience with them through working in
a solicitors office I find them particularly open to bribery, i.e. charging
people for no reason but what solicitors give them.

A 42-year-old manual worker from Enfield :

Not much — they rarely solve a major crime by their own efforts — in
nine cases out of ten the criminal is 'shopped' by an informer — again,
I've met scores in private life, and on the field of play, and I've rarely
met a good fellow, (lastly, once a policeman, always a policeman— that's
true!)

A 59-year-old working class man from Pembridge, Herefordshire:
Mostly they are people who are trained to be friendly with the object
of 'finding out' all they can about you and when necessary using their
information against you {and Ym a Christian).

A 26-year-old unmarried man from Birmingham :

Considering I was once — to be frank — blackmailed to bribe on the
spot. Personally, police on the whole concentrate to much on petty
things rather than the important crimes (ex book you on first offence
such as no rear light on bike.)

In the answers they gave to this question two groups of people
identified themselves with more particularity than was called for in
the questionnaire: those who were themselves members of a police
force or one of the police auxiliaries or who had relatives in the force;
and secondly a small group who had at some time of their lives
come into what might be called professional relations with the police.
These seem to be sufficiently interesting in themselves, as well as for
occasional insights they give into English character, to merit full
quotation.

Some dozen respondents, all of them men, stated, either directly
or inferentially, that they had been in trouble through police actions.
Although the number is too small to be anything but suggestive, it
does seem that there is a tendency for those who have broken
criminal laws to be appreciative of the police force, whereas those
who have been imprisoned for civil offences and the like are full
of resentment. Thus, a 29-year-old unmarried middle class man from
near Blackpool:

As a C.O. I refused 'medical' so went to jail for 6 months, where I

learnt that police are biggest crooks of all! — 'Never trust a policeman —

keep out of their way and never let them pull a fast one on you' is my

motto.

221

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 19^-year-old sailor from Croydon:

Personally I don't like the Police; but I suppose they have to do their
job as well as anyone else. But I think they go a little to far in 'booking*
a matelot when he's drunk and trifles like that.

A 31 -year-old working class man from Greenwich:

I have been to prison four times for arrears of maintenance, and I
think that if the police gave as much time to criminals as they do to the
likes of me more criminals would be in jail now.

A 24-year-old man from Birmingham:

My opinion may be biased ? am now 24 years of age have been in 5
institutions since 2 years of age came out when 13|. Put on probation
when 15. Sent to Borstal at 18^ for three years: Licence revoked,
sentenced to 8 months etc. in all 5 homes, 5 prisons, 2 Borstals.

A 58-year-old working class man from Buckingham:

Knowing that I am one of the people they have to watch I think they
are a body of wise men.

A working class man from Lincolnshire:
They are very decent to you providing you act ignorant.

A 40-year-old working class man from Rochdale Spotland, Lanes :
The police in this town are very considerate and don't booked you
unless you are arkward.

A 49-year-old married man from Morden, Surrey:

Speaking as an ex civil-employee of Scotland Yard's engineer's staff
and an ex tramp (two years on the toby in the great slump) — generally
— very very fair.

A 75-year-old professional man from Windermere, Westmorland:
A remarkably fine body of men doing their often difficult and danger-
ous work well though among so many there are a few black sheep.
Twice in my life I have been had up and fined and each case I agreed
with the police. Once for riding a cycle to the common danger and once
for showing a light though I was an ARP warden.

A 44-year-old middle class man from North London:

A good body of men with a big job to do all the year round and there
is nothing to beat the Bulldog British Policeman on the beat although
he has pinched me for speeding 3 times. 'God Blessem'.

A 23-year-old middle class man from Maidenhead:

Although, on two occasions I have run foul of the police I do con-
sider that our Police Force is very efficiently organized, and for that, I
have great respect for them.

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LAW AND ORDER

A 30-year-old married man from near Lancaster:

In the beginning of my life, I hated them on sight, I have been in
trouble as a youth, now however with home, wife and children, I
cherish, I would risk my life to help them in any circumstances.

Twenty-two respondents identified themselves as being, or having
been in, the regular police, ten as special or temporary police, and
two as military policemen. Twenty-two people were the wife or
children of policemen; six had brothers, sons or daughters in the
Force, and nine more distant relatives or in-laws.2 This is of course a
comparatively large number, out of a sample of 11, COO;3 it seems
possible that the familiarity of the police with paper work made the
filling out of the questionnaire congenial to them. I had phrased
my appeal for collaborators as a request for help; and this may have
elicited the helpfulness to which so many of the previous quotations
have borne witness. Nobody could have known that this question
was to be asked until they had expressed their willingness to collabo-
rate by sending in the form requesting the questionnaire. Eight of the
acting police men or women who identified themselves as members
of the force gave that as a reason why they should not make any
comment on the question 'What do you think of the police ?' so that
it seems improbable that any members of the police or their families
sent for the questionnaire as a device for working off grudges
anonymously. In their replies to all the other questions my police
respondents do not differ either in fullness or frankness from com-
parable respondents in other walks of life. Quite a few of them
admitted to some form or another of disapproved-of behaviour;
but in such cases I have not thought it proper to identify the respon-
dent as a member of the police force when I have quoted him or her.

Despite some criticism, the general morale of the police force
appears to be extremely high, as the following quotations show. I
shall not identify the respondents further than by age and county.

The police are terrific, their biggest task being to keep their world-
wide reputation. I am one. (E. Yorks, 20)

The police have many arduous and difficult tasks to perform. They
are courteous and well-disciplined in all respects. They elicit the co-
operation of the public in the investigation of crime. They are a fine
body of men. I being an ex-police officer should know. Hats off to
them. (Northumberland, 66)

As a police officer I think the police are more efficient than they have
ever been but there is room for improvement in conditions of service.
The relations between the police and the public is better than it has ever
been and is improving daily. (Lincolnshire, 24)

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

As I was a member for 4 years in England and 5 abroad can speak
from inside and state fine body of men with public not so fine amongst
themselves and in the station. Abroad, as at home, doing splendid work
preventing crime, but far too much 'red tape' as in the Army. Too many
young 'uns persecuting public instead of helping them. (Nottingham-
shire, 51)

As an ex-Policeman I think the average policeman is a most efficient
and enthusiastic young man but is badly hampered by having to serve
under disgruntled and often ignorant officers who have got their position
through favour. (Yorkshire, 27)

As a Police Cadet I suppose I am rather biased. But the Police force
and the medical profession are the two most (In my opinion) important
professions and may I say the most under paid. (West Riding,

I cannot give an unbiased answer to this question, as I am a Police
Officer. I do, however, think they are doing a good job, but there are
still improvements to be made. (Cheshire, 45)

I am in the Police Force, and I think they are a fine body of men who
do a difficult job well. (Warwickshire, 26)

Over worked (in the Cities only) underpaid for what we have to
know and anti-social ungenial duties understaffed in (both County and
City) not enough Beat Duty in County area, too much 'phone and office,
typing duties, not nearly enough admin, from above (not really enough
space for me to let rip here either (More so I should know !) Too many
offenders 'not proceeded against'. (Monmouthshire, 33)

Being a Police Constable myself, I am therefore of the highest opinion
regarding the Police Service in this Country. I have travelled to quite
a number of European Countries, consider ours to be the finest in the
World. (Worcestershire, 20)

Some improvement in the standard of recruits is required, but will
be brought about only by monetary inducement. As a member for 26
years, the questions is probably unfair. (Lancashire, 44)

I am a police officer! Most of us are average chaps, for the most part
very fair and reasonable, and we have a very difficult job. (Surrey, 20)

No country could run smoothly without the restraining army of the
law; But the men are treated like schoolboys by their superior officers.
I know, I have worked as a constable. (Kent, 41)

I think a considerable amount but probably biassed as I served more
than 26 years in the Metropolitan Police and now in receipt of a Police
pension however I consider the police do their job well and function
more effectively when supported by the Courts and the public. I observe

224

LAW AND ORDER

that in recent years sentences are more severe than in the I930's and
there is less probation. Police get disheartened when tiresome criminals
young or old get placed on probation or given light sentences.
(Devonshire, 53)

Some of those who have had temporary employment with the
police are much less enthusiastic. The six men quoted first consider
themselves middle class, the remainder working class.

Having been a special during the last war — they stink (London, 26)

Having been an officer in the Metropolitan Special Constabulary for
the past 1 8 months and think the Met. Police are the most unprincipled
bunch of scoundrels imaginable. (London, 26)

Having been a Special Constable for 3J years — not much. There is as
much complaint inside the police force as there is outside. (Devon, 53)

Having been in the Police War Reserve I find them alright. (Sussex, 57)

Being myself a member of the Metropolitan Special Constabulary I
know that on the whole they carry out a difficult job extremely well but
unfortunately some try to avoid 'jobs' out of sheer laziness. (Kent)

Being a special constable I think the regular police are doing a difficult
job well. (Yorks. 37)

Being in the (Police War Reserve) during the War I came in very
close contact with all grades and found good and bad. (Kent, 47)

I spent six years as a War Reserve in the Metropolitan Police and
taking them as a whole they are a fair generally impartial, decent crowd
of men. (Dorset, 43)

Having served 4 years as S.P. during War, I am of opinion that they
are one of our finest bodies of men in the country. (Lancashire)

Forget it. I've been an R.A.F. policeman. (Lancashire, 45)

A fine body of men, dealing very fairly with wrongdoers. I speak from
experience, having had 6 years with the Military Police. (Durham, 36)

With a few exceptions, the children of police officers regard their
fathers' profession with enthusiasm; but the views of their wives
and other relatives are usually more moderate.

A 66-year-old working class man from Essex:

Under present circumstances I think they do a good job of work.
My father was a copper so perhaps I'm a bit biased, but with the
modern equipment to help them the crime Gangs have a thin time.

225

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 44-year-old working class man from Yorkshire :

My father served 30 years in the W.R.C. constabulary therefore I may
be biased. But I have a great admiration for the body of men. My
experience of them, and particularly the young men of todays forces,
is that if you treat them as human beings doing a necessary job you get
their respect and co-operation,

A man from Warwickshire :

When looking back on my father's days when he was a policeman,
I would say they have deteriorated in discipline and appearance.

A 35-year-old Lancashire woman :

Firstly there are not enough of them. Secondly, my Father was one
for 25 years and I think the Policeman these days doesn't know he is
born compared to 20 years ago, nevertheless they are helpful and
courteous.

A 50-year-old married woman from Norfolk;

My father was a policeman so I suppose I think they are a grand lot
and I dont know what we should do without them.

A single woman, 24-year-old, from Devonshire :

They are a very necessary force. But my own father who was in the
police disillusioned me. In private life during early childhood. He made
our lives hell.

A 32-year-old married woman from Hampshire:

I come of a police family, so naturally have a healthy respect for them.
I really wish my husband was a policeman. I don't know whether the
modern 'copper' has quite the same courage as his grandfather though.

A 24-year-old woman from Nottingham:

This is rather an amusing question, because my husband is a police-
man. However, I think they are no better and no worse than ordinary
citizens. They certainly work very hard for comparatively little. I think,
though, that they could spend less time filling up forms, seeing children
across roads, inspecting cinemas and pestering poor motorists, and
devote more time and energy to the prevention of real crime, instead
of chasing people who break silly idiotic little rules.

A 30-year-old woman from East Yorkshire :

My husband is a Police Constable, so naturally I think they are quite
a nice lot on the whole, but they fiddle like anybody else.

A 25-year-old woman from Middlesex:

They will always help if you ask them and children should be taught
to look upon them as friends, but from persona] experience of my
husband who joined the Force for a time in this area keenness is not
very prevalent amongst them these days.

226

LAW AND ORDER

A 42-year-old woman from Middlesex:

Well, having been married to one from 1931 to 1941 I haven't a very
good opinion, but of course there are sure to be good and bad in every
walk of life.

A 31 -year-old woman from Yorkshire:

I am prejudiced — my husband was a policeman ! Knowing him and
many other constables my definition is 'callous and conceited'. From
an impersonal view I suppose I should say "Helpful and useful to the
public'.

A young married woman from Worcester:

My twin is a policewoman — my father uas a policeman and find
25 % too fond of their work to ever forget it. 25 % seem to be law-
breakers themselves.

A 24-year-old bachelor from Yorkshire who describes himself as
* Working class but I dress quite decent' :

Ha, ha, I have to say it is very good because my brother is one.
Besides if there wasnt a police force there would be more crime than
there is today.

A 53-year-old woman from Lancashire:

Don't know. My brother was one and I know they were like all other
class — much differences in characters. Some all out for promotion —
others very considerate etc. Think on the whole they are better than 50
years ago.

A 30-year-old married man from Leicestershire:

I think they are a grand lot of men (Not because I have a brother in
the Force), but I do admire them and have taught my child to ask a
policeman any time in difficulty.

A 36-year-old married woman from Bedfordshire:

Most helpful in ordinary circumstances but having relatives in the
force (police), I wouldn't trust that they would help me or mine, if it
meant a case for themselves.

An 18-year-old girl from Norfolk:

I have relatives in the police force so cannot give an entirely unbiased
view but my opinion is that they are sometimes unfair, prejudiced.
People with records can never live them down.

A 42-year-old woman from Shropshire:

Several of my husband's relations and one of mine are in the 'Force*
three holding fairly high rank, so I think, that as men, they're a grand
crowd doing a fine job of work.

227

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 57-year-old man from Berkshire:

Having a son-in-law who is a police-constable, I can say without
hesitation that it is the system not the men that is at fault. So long as
aged and doddering magistrates let off juvenile delinquents with a mild
caution (so that thereafter they jibe at the law instead of respecting it)
and so long as promising young men are given nothing better to do than
harrass the owners of parked cars and perform similar trivial tasks, so
long will the British Police Force continue to be a great deal more
ornamental than useful.

A 32-year-old woman from Kent :

One of my relatives is a retired policeman and from his own telling
police are the biggest fiddlers. They are not conscientious enough.

A 26-year-old married woman from Bedfordshire:

I think the police are great, maybe because my uncle is in the City of
London police but I must add honestly even country police do a little
fiddling when they can.

I should like to draw attention to the number of these respon-
dents who warn me about their possible bias or prejudice. It appears
to me to constitute a striking illustration of the honesty and fair-
mindedness on which so many other respondents comment.

The fairly frequent references to 'fiddling' which occur in these
quotations may be partly due to the fact that the question about the
police immediately followed one about 'fiddling'. (Some of the police
respondents stated that they 'fiddled', but since this was at least a
technical misdemeanour I have not included these statements in the
quotations.)

Taken in conjunction with the enthusiastic appreciation of the
police shown by my respondents, their attitude to 'fiddling' illus-
trates one of the paradoxes of English character. These fervid
respecters of the law are most of them law-breakers, at least in a
technical sense.

'Fiddling', both as a word and a concept, is something new in
conventional English. The word has existed for a considerable period
as a cant or underworld phrase for 'making a living just within the
limits of the law'4; at some date in the second half of the Second
World War it came into general use, with (at least) two major
meanings. One of these seems to be practically a synonym for the
World War I term 'scrounge', the stealing or appropriating usually
on a small scale of articles belonging to military stores and the like,
and so by extension to petty larceny from employers or from 'them' —
anonymous corporations like the nationalized railways. The second

228

LAW AND ORDER

and, I believe, much more general use is the circumvention of various
rationing and control laws, the acquiring of food, hard or soft
goods, or petrol, without surrendering the appropriate coupons or
having the proper permits, but usually as an open cash transaction
(dealing with the 'black market'), with the proper price, or something
over the odds, paid for the goods. In this sense it has some connec-
tion with the World War I phrase 'wangle' ; but I think this term was
more of a middle than a working class word, and was considerably
less specific.

What seems to me exceptional about this phrase, at least as far
as twentieth century England is concerned, is that this term for
law-breaking does not carry any connotation of guilt. Much of the
previous material will have shown the great strength and severity
of the English conscience; but this conscience is silent about the
infringement of rationing laws enforced six years after the cessation
of hostilities. Barely one person in fifty, either in the main sample or
in the field survey, claims that 'None of my family has ever got
anything "off the ration'".

I will venture a generalization. Any attempt to impose rationing
and controls on the English people except in the face of the most
patent emergency, such as a war, no matter how ethical the reasons
(such as 'fair shares for all'), will almost inevitably undermine the
best qualities of the English character. A strong conscience is, so to
speak, self-policing; if an attempt is made to replace this self-policing
by external controls, particularly by unenforceable laws of which
the necessity or usefulness is not immediately obvious, the most
valuable qualities of the English civic character developed over the
last century or so will inevitably be sapped. Laws 'which tend
unwittingly to make criminals of us all', in the words of more than
one 'informant, are far more dangerous for the law-abiding English
than for any other society of which I have detailed knowledge.

After the introduction There's a lot of talk about 'fiddling' nowa-
days. Please mark which of the following statements most nearly
represent your own opinion' I presented a choice of nine statements
(not precisely in the order which follows), three of which could be
considered admissions of fiddling, three as rejection on ethical
grounds, two as projection (it isn't me, it's them) and one as denial.
The choice of statements was as follows :

(i) Nearly everybody fiddles nowadays.

(ii) Most people fiddle occasionally, but not many do regularly,
(iii) With all the rules and regulations, one can't help having to
break a rule sometimes.

229

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

(iv) It is unpatriotic to fiddle.

(v) It is wrong to break the law under any circumstances.

(vi) It is unfair to try to get more than others.
(vii) Most fiddling is done by profiteers.
(viii) Most fiddling is done by foreigners.

(ix) None of my family has ever got anything 'off the ration'.

Just on two-thirds of the population (67 per cent of the men, and
61 per cent of the women) mark one of the three admissions. A con-
siderable number more men than women consider that 'nearly every-
body fiddles nowadays' (22 per cent contrasted with 15 per cent)
and slightly more women than men (18 per cent men, 22 per cent
women) choose the third statement. The distribution of the three
admissions, taken together, is remarkably even; there are somewhat
fewer admissions from the middle-aged and elderly (over 45) from
the poor and the lower working class and the North- West; and
the admissions are higher from the upper middle classes, from the
young (between 18 and 24) from the more prosperous (over £12
a week) and from the Midlands. With the single exception of the
over 65's the admissions never fall below 57 per cent nor rise above
74 per cent.

In the choice of admissions, the working and lower working
classes particularly emphasize that nearly everybody fiddles nowa-
days; the upper middle and lower middle classes that most people
fiddle occasionally, but not many do regularly; and the upper
working, middle and upper middle classes that with all the rules
and regulations one can't help having to break a rule sometimes,
an argument which appeals relatively little to the working and lower
working classes.

The three rejection sentences (iv, v, vi) are chosen much more by
women than by men (22 per cent women and 16 per cent men), the
major contrast appearing in the option for the statement that it is
unfair to try to get more than others. This is the only statement
out of these three which commands 10 per cent of the choices; it
is particularly emphasized by the lower middle class and by the
elderly. Only 3 per cent of either sex considers that it is unpatriotic to
fiddle; this falls to 1 per cent in the upper working class and in the
18-24 group. Five per cent consider that it is wrong to break the
law under any circumstances; this appeal to the sanctity of the law
only rises to 7 per cent or above in the upper working class and with
people aged over 45 or with incomes of under £5 a week; it falls to
2 per cent in the lower working class. Taking the three ethical
rejections together, one finds that they have most appeal to the poor

230

LAW AND ORDER

and widowed aged over 45, and least appeal to the young, aged
between 18 and 34 and to the lower working class. They are relatively
little used by the more prosperous members of the upper middle and
middle classes.

Only one of the projective statements commands more than a
scattering: 13 per cent of the men and 10 per cent of the women state
that most fiddling is done by profiteers. This belief finds a very high
number of supporters from the North- West region (18 per cent in
the main survey and 20 per cent in the field survey) ; and I am some-
what inclined to link this figure with the high concentration of
Roman Catholics in the same region ;5 it seems likely that many of
these Roman Catholics are the children of Irish immigrants; and
blaming somebody else for one's troubles is almost an Irish national
policy. The belief in profiteers is held by somewhat more of the lower
working and working classes, and somewhat less by the upper
middle and upper working classes. Only 2 per cent of the population
put the blame for fiddling on foreigners, with a little concentration
in the London lower working class; and, as has already been stated,
only 2 per cent claim that their family have never had anything off
the ration, predominantly poor old widowed women.6

Respondents were asked, if they agreed with more than one
statement, to number them in the order of their importance; and
72 per cent took advantage of this to mark more than one answer.
As I was reading through the questionnaires, it had seemed that a
number of respondents so to speak 'hedged their bets', following an
admission by a rejection or projection and conversely. I therefore
had a table made showing which were the second choices of each
first choice. The tabulation did not altogether bear out my impression.
Less than a quarter of those whose first choice was an admission
sentence and who made a second choice chose a rejection or pro-
jection sentence; and those who consider fiddling unpatriotic and
law-breaking wrong are similarly consistent. More than half of
those whose first choice was the statement *It is unfair to try to get
more than others' selected one of the admission statements as second
choice; but what is perhaps most revealing is that nearly two-thirds
of those who stated that most fiddling was done by profiteers or
foreigners selected an admission statement as second choice. I think
this may derive from a rather particular interpretation of the word
'most' in the two statements; these people may consider that the
'big fiddles' are performed by profiteers and foreigners, even though
the little men, among whom they count themselves, fiddle in their
own little way. If this interpretation be correct, my respondents are

231

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

more consistent than my impressions had suggested, though there is
a confused minority.

A number of writers7 have suggested that there is a direct correla-
tion between the increase in petty law-breaking, such as fiddling,
and the 'decline of religion' ; and I therefore correlated the answers

Figure XXXIV
Question 81

81. There's a lot of talk about 'fiddling' nowadays. Please mark which of the
following statements most nearly represents your opinion.

SECOND CHOICE

2 | 3

9 ]

•3

*rt

§§

.2?

it H

FIRST CHOICE

<->

TJ C3
C y.

o
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<2 u

O C

o
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.SJ °

5.0

£fa

w 2

60 |j

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•ti "c

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42 >^

2 _g

s i

> rt

« n

S o

% | %

V °/
/o | /o

o/
/o

1. Nearly everybody fiddles

nowadays

—

100

2. Most people fiddle occasion-

ally but not many do regu-

larly

—

100

3. With all the rules and regula-

tions one can't help having

to break a rule sometimes

—

100

4. It is unpatriotic to fiddle

—

100

5. None of my family has ever

got anything 'off the ration'

—

100

6. It is wrong to break the law

under any circumstances

—

100

7. Most fiddling is done by

profiteers

—

100

8. It is unfair to try to get more

than others

—

100

9. Most fiddling is done by

foreigners

—

100

It is necessary when reading this table to bear in mind the very great differences
in first choices.

232

LAW AND ORDER

about fiddling with membership of any religious denomination,
with the extent of attendance at Church or religious services, and
with the frequency of prayer or other private devotions, which can
roughly be considered three increasingly accurate measures of
religious practice. The answers are far from conclusive. Member-
ship of a religious denomination does not appear to make any
significant difference. Those who go to church once a week or more
often are slightly more likely to choose one of the ethical rejection
sentences than those who never go, or only for weddings and funerals;
but there is only 10 per cent difference in admissions between the
most fervent church-goers and the total abstainers (52 and 62 per cent
respectively). With the saying of private prayers the pattern is very
similar: those who say prayers daily or more often are slightly more
likely to choose the ethical rejections (and also, though to a less
degree, to project guilt on to profiteers and foreigners) than those
who say they seldom or never; 57 per cent of those who
pray more than once a day choose admission sentences compared

Figure XXXV

Question 81 by Question 82

81. There's a lot of talk about 'fiddling' nowadays. Please mark which of the
following statements most nearly represents your opinion.

82. Would you describe yourself as being of any religion or denomination?

Question 82

Question 81

Yes

No answer

Total

Nearly everybody fiddles nowadays

100

Most people fiddle occasionally, but

not many people do regularly

100

With all the rules and regulations one

can't help having to break a rule

sometimes

100

It is unpatriotic to fiddle

100

None of my family has ever got

anything 'off the ration'

100

It is wrong to break the law under

any circumstances

100

Most fiddling is done by profiteers

100

It is unfair to try to get more than

others

100

Most fiddling is done by foreigners

100

No answer

100

Total

100

233

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

with 70 per cent of those who never do. The active practice of
religion does make a slight difference in the attitudes towards minor
law-breaking, but the influence is negligible compared with its
influence on pre-marital chastity.8 To the extent that these figures
are reliable (and the sample is far the largest, to my knowledge,
dealing with these two questions) if the whole population were
suddenly to become extremely devout, the reduction in fiddling and
similar petty offences would only be in the neighbourhood of 10 per
cent. The majority of English men and women break the rationing
and control laws in peace time because these laws do not command
the respect and allegiance either of their intellects or of their strict
consciences.

Figure XXXVI

Question 84 by Question 81

84. Do you attend church or religious services ?

81. There's a lot of talk about 'fiddling' nowadays. Please mark which of the
following statements most nearly represents your opinion.

Question 81

\ i 3

g 8

i M

£>

o £

lalions
someii

3 O

Question 84

S ora

O j^

•0 «

•5
G

!"!

S 2

§ M

•° *?

•O H"

•o

•c
o
.0

•s

42
ao

c/3

O.Q

^ o

to|

-3

3 ert

2 >.

- ?

1-1 rt

en 4j 1 ^

"" JS °

•"• ° j **

cs
o

More than once a week

100

Once a week

100

Less than once a week, but

more than once a month

100

Less than once a month

100

Once or twice a year

100

Only for weddings and

funerals

100

Never

100

No answer

—

100

Total

12 1 10

100

1 !

234

LAW AND ORDER

Figure XXXVII
Question 85 by Question 81

85. Do you say private prayers?

81. There's a lot of talk about 'fiddling' nowadays. Please mark which of the
following statements most nearly represents your opinion.

Question 81

Cfi

oj=

Question 85

«3

G "
§g>

S'J2

1
o
•o

o
>,

,0 O

•* *5

2 S

5 ^o,

•a

fiddling is

•i-

- 1

u S

3 tn

„

More than once a day

100

Daily

100

Only in peril or grief

100

Very seldom

100

Never

100

No answer

—

12 j 100

Total

100

NOTES TO CHAPTER THIRTEEN

1. Four blank lines were provided for the answer.

2. See Chapter Three, p. 35, for a discussion of the class position to which these
people assigned themselves.

3. Since there is approximately one policeman to every 720 citizens, it is only slightly
above expectation from a random sample.

4. See Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of the Underworld (Routledge and Kegan Paul,
1950). It has existed as an army slang term at least from 1910 (personal communication
from Mr. Partridge).

5. See Chapter Fourteen, p. 239.

6. The same question was asked in the field survey, with the added refinement that
a number of cards were printed with the sentences arranged in various orders, to
prevent any possibility of the order influencing the choice. This was one of the ques-
tions where I expected a marked difference between the replies given in face-to-face
interviews and those from anonymous questionnaires; I thought the interviewees
would make much more use of the rejection and projection sentences. As has been
explained, men and women differ quite markedly in the sentences they choose; since
the proportion of the sexes is different in the two samples, I am giving the answers of
the field survey by sexes, rather than as totals, with the corresponding percentages
from the main sample in brackets and italics.

235

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Men Women

(i) Nearly everybody fiddles nowadays 23 (22) 17 (15)
(ii) Most people fiddle occasionally but not many do regu-
larly 14 (27) 13 (24)
(iii) With all the rules and regulations one can't help having

to break a rule sometimes 22 (18) 18 (22)

(iv) It is unpatriotic to fiddle 5 (3) 5 (3)

(v) It is wrong to break the law under any circumstances 6 (.5) 8 (6)

(vi) It is unfair to try to get more than others 6 (#) 14 (13)

(vii) Most fiddling is done by profiteers 14 (13) 14 (10)

(viii) Most fiddling is done by foreigners 7 (2) 5 (2)

(ix) None of my family has ever got anything 'off the ration' 2 (7) 4 (2)

No answer 1 (/) 2 (J)

As can be seen, the choices of the two samples are remarkably similar, with the
exception of the answers to (ii) and (viii). The few people choosing the intermediate
'admission' in the interview confirms the pattern which has been noted several times
that interviewees tend to give all-or-none answers while people filling in a questionnaire
and, at least presumably, giving more thought to their answers, tend to choose shaded
answers. The greater number choosing to give the 'protective' answer that most
fiddling is done by foreigners is in accordance with my preliminary expectations. This
answer was not given at all by members of the upper middle or upper working
classes. There is some concentration in the lower working and working classes from
the two Northern regions. It seems noteworthy that the two samples are in such close
agreement that (by 1951) it was not unpatriotic or wrong to break the rationing and
control laws and that practically none would claim that they or their families had
never done so.

7. See especially R. Seebohm Rowntree and G. R. Lavers: English Life and Leisure
(Longmans, London, 1951).

8. See Figures VIII, IX, X, XI, in Chapter Eight

236

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

NEARLY A QUARTER of the population of England, according to this
sample, do not consider that they belong to any religion or denomina-
tion, not even the minimal self-ascription of 'Church of England —
only to distinguish myself from Roman Catholic or other denomina-
tion', in the typical words of a 40-year-old upper working class man
from Ramsbottom, Lanes. Twenty-six per cent of the men and 18
per cent of the women have no religious affiliation at all. A further
2 per cent did not answer this question.

This non-religious group is unevenly distributed throughout the
country. It is most numerous in the metropolises (29 per cent) and
least so in the small towns and villages (19 per cent); it is much less
represented in the two Western regions (South-West 16 per cent,
North- West 17 per cent) than in the rest of the country. It seems
possible that this regional variation springs from two main causes:
the South- West is the most rural of the regions and (as will be shown
subsequently) the practice of religion is more frequent in the small
towns and villages ; and the North- West has the greatest concentra-
tion of Roman Catholics (14 per cent of the total acknowledging
adherence to any denomination). Age appears to make no appreciable
difference to non-religion ; nor does marriage, while the partners are
alive and living together. The divorced or separated have the highest
proportion (30 per cent) of those claiming no religious affiliation,
and the widowed the lowest (18 per cent). Income appears to be a
determining factor, with the percentage of non-adherents consistently
rising as income rises, from 20 per cent of those with incomes of
under £5 a week, through 23 per cent for those in the £8-£12 weekly
income bracket, to 26 per cent of those with incomes of over £15
weekly. Members of the middle and of the lower working classes,
with 18 and 19 per cent respectively, have markedly fewer non-
religious than do the remaining classes. Those who cannot place
themselves in the English social system also tend not to place them-
selves in a religious denomination.

Three-quarters of the population assign themselves to some
religion or denomination; of this group 2 per cent do not give further
details ; 3 per cent, slightly concentrated in the young and prosperous,
say 'Christian' without further elaboration; and another 4 per cent,
again somewhat concentrated in the under 18's and over 65's and

237

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

the lower working class call themselves 'Protestant'. The remainder
are more precise; they all claim membership in some Protestant
communion, with the exception of 8 per cent who are Roman Catho-
lics, 3 per cent belonging to such modem sects as Spiritualists,
Christian Scientists and Theosophists, and slightly less than 1 per
cent (25 individuals) who are Jewish. Eighty per cent of those
English people who claim any church membership belong to some
organized Protestant Church.

Of these far the largest group is Church of England, comprising
58 per cent of all the English people claiming allegiance to some
denomination. Members of the Church of England are somewhat
heavily concentrated in the two Southern regions, and are relatively
fewer in the two Northern ones, particularly the North-East and
North ; and they are also fewer in the large towns (between a million
and a hundred thousand inhabitants) and most numerous in the
small towns and villages. There is some concentration in the younger
(25-34) married groups, and there are comparatively fewer among
the aged. With an income of over £5 a week money makes very
little difference to this ascription; the very poor are slightly more
likely to belong to other denominations. There is a larger proportion
of members of the Church of England among people calling them-
selves middle class or working class without modifiers than in the
remaining social classes.

Although doctrinally there is no difference between those calling
themselves Church of England, and those calling themselves
Anglican, there appeared to be so much difference in practice that
I had this small group of less than 2 per cent (48 people) classified
separately. They come predominantly from the two Southern regions
and tend to consider themselves upper middle class; no member of
the lower working class describes him or her self in such a way.

The most sizable Protestant group after the Church of England
are the Methodists with 10 per cent of the religious population.
There is a heavy concentration of these in the North-East and North
(18 per cent of the population of the region) followed by the Midlands
(12 per cent). There are relatively few in London and the South-
East, and in the metropolises; they are concentrated in the medium
sized towns. Few of the most prosperous people are Methodists,
nor are many members of the upper middle class; they are relatively
numerous in the lower middle, upper working and lower working
classes. Very few Methodists are divorced or separated.

None of the other Protestant churches have more than 3 per cent
of the total religious population. The Baptists have 3 per cent with

238

RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

some concentration in the Midlands and the upper middle and
lower middle classes. The Congregationalists also have 3 per cent,
evenly divided regionally, but with rather a higher number of middle-
aged and elderly members concentrated in the lower middle and
upper working classes. The Nonconformists have 2 per cent, also
chiefly middle-aged and elderly with some concentration in the
South-West; no members of the upper middle class belong to this
denomination, which finds most of its members in the lower middle
and upper working classes. There is a tiny group (less than 1 per cent)
of Presbyterians, from the North-East and North, presumably
chiefly people with Scottish connections. Finally there is a group of
adherents to small sects with only a very few representatives of each
sect in the sample; among them are Christadelphians, Unitarians,
Quakers, Peculiar Persons, Primitive Methodists, Toe H, Salvation
Army, Plymouth Brethren, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Ad-
ventists, Providence Particular Baptists, Andrew Jackson Davis's
Teaching, British Israel World Federation and The Countess of
Huntingdon's Persuasion. For convenience of tabulation I grouped
all members of these and similar bodies under the rubric 'small
Protestant sects' ; it was perhaps not permissible to put into the same
category the prosperous unmarried upper middle class lady from
Chelsea who described her denomination as 'dialectical materialist*.
These small Protestant sects find most of their members in those
over the age of 45 and with very low incomes ; otherwise the distribu-
tion is very even except that no members of the upper working class
belong to such small sects.

As has already been stated, the Roman Catholics are heavily
concentrated in the North- West with 14 per cent, and are very few
in the South-West (3 per cent) or the small towns and villages. Most
of the Catholic respondents are between the ages of 18 and 44;
they are sparsely represented among the very poor and (not sur-
prisingly) among the divorced and separated. Those who can place
themselves in the English social system call themselves upper middle
or working class; but a surprisingly high number fail to place
themselves in any of the six social classes, which gives further likeli-
hood to the suggestion that the majority of Roman Catholics are of
Irish origin or descent and not completely assimilated into the
English social structure.

The small group of Jews are predominantly prosperous young
students from London and the South-East who place themselves
in the upper middle class, though there are representatives from all
areas and social classes except the lower working class.

239

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

The 3 per cent of Spiritualists, Christian Scientists and Theoso-
phists (most of them Spiritualists) are predominantly middle aged
or elderly, poor, widowed or separated; they are fairly evenly divided
though few of the young, under 24, belong to such elective groups,
nor do many of the upper or lower working classes.1

Even on so factual a question as one's religious denomination a
certain number of respondents chose to add elucidating comments.
Thus, three respondents stated they were recent Catholic converts;
another, a 29-year-old middle class man from Cheshire, wrote :

I was brought up Roman Catholic and still follow it so as not to hurt

near relatives' feeling. I do not believe in Christianity.

A widowed lady from Bardesley, who describes herself as 'By birth
and breeding middle class, but by force of circumstance working
class' :

Christian with a strong leaning to Judaism.

A 45-year-old working class wife from Bridport:

S.DA. I believe wholly in the Bible, try to keep Gods law. E.G.
keeping Saturday Sabbath, believing Saturday to be the Seventh day,
find it difficult, but do my best. No Church here S.DA.

A 29-year-old 'working middle class' bachelor from Cleveleys:

Christian — but not belonging to any church as churches nowadays
are mostly hypocntic.

A 43-year-old working class bachelor from Bristol :
Church of England but more of Bishop Barnes theories attract me.

A 38-year-old 'hard working' married man from Croydon:

Am a version of Jehovahs Wittness. But I am a weak hypocript
mostly sexually.

In a country in which most people inherit their religious denomina-
tion from their parents, self-ascription to one sect rather than another
gives very little information of the role religious practices or beliefs
play in their lives. In an attempt to get further insight into the extent
to which religion is of importance in people's lives I asked a series
of questions on religious practices and beliefs. These questions
were asked of the whole sample, both those who claimed member-
ship of some denomination and those who did not; all the answers
were analysed according to the denomination of the respondents
subsequently; but it should be kept in mind that only three-quarters
of the population claim membership of any denomination, and also
that the absolute sizes of the denominations are very different. Thus,

240

RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

though the Church of England, for example, may show a much
smaller percentage of fervent church-goers than the Baptists, the
number of members of the Church of England attending service
more than once a week will be much higher than that of the Baptists
doing so.

Seven alternative answers were offered to the question 'Do you
attend church or religious services?': more than once a week; once
a week; less than once a week but more than once a month; less than
once a month; once or twice a year; only for weddings and funerals;
never. I supplied the category 'only for weddings and funerals' be-
cause I thought that many respondents, either through meticulousness
or some feeling of apprehension, might object to marking the altern-
ative 'never' ; and indeed this category was selected by a third of the
total. A few respondents wrote in 'christenings* as a third reason for
entering holy premises.

Six per cent of the population visit a church more than once a
week, and can be considered fervent church-goers; another 9 per
cent go regularly once a week. A little less than a sixth of the popula-
tion are regular or fervent in their devotions, but it seems likely that
not all of these are voluntarily so; the percentages are much the
highest in the upper middle class under 24, and especially under 18;
and these may well be students with compulsory chapel.

Fervent church-going is relatively uncommon in the two Southern
regions and in the metropolises, and with the younger married people,
between 25 and 44; otherwise they are fairly evenly divided through-
out the population, save for the lower working class; 5 per cent of
the men and 7 per cent of the women attend religious services more
than once a week.

The regular church-goers comprise markedly more women than
men (11 per cent and 7 per cent respectively); they are more frequent
in the small towns and villages, among the single and widowed
rather than the married; they are particularly few between the ages
of 25-34. Some of the young married people mention the impos-
sibility of leaving small children alone as a reason why they do not
go to church; and this may be operative in a number of cases.
Certainly the married and those between the ages of 25 and 34 visit
churches less than any of the other groups.2

Forty-five per cent of the population, just under half, can be
considered intermittent church-goers, attending less than once a
week, but at least once or twice a year, with the greater proportion,
a quarter of the total population, falling into the least frequent
category. Twice as many women as men (11 per cent and 6 per cent)

241

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

go more than once a month; a third more women than men (13
per cent and 9 per cent) go less than once a month; but the two
sexes are nearly equal (27 per cent and 25 per cent) for a visit once
or twice a year, presumably for most people Easter and Christmas.

If the figures for intermittent church-going are summated, a
consistent pattern emerges. Such intermittent church-going is a
middle class rather than a working class pattern, a small town and
village, rather than a metropolitan pattern, and is least common in
London and its conurbation. To the extent that, in a society as urban
as that of modern England, country ways represent a survival of
earlier patterns, it appears that attending religious services is such a
survival. These intermittent church-goers represent about half the
congregation of the great majority of the sects; it represents a
somewhat small proportion of the Roman Catholics and Presby-
terians, and a very high proportion — nearly three-quarters — of the
Nonconformists and Jews, both of which groups tend to visit a
place of worship once or twice a year.

The remaining two-fifths of the population do not attend churches
or religious services for the purpose of worship, though all but 7 per
cent do so for weddings or funerals. Nine per cent of the men and 5
per cent of the women say they 'never' go to church; they are some-
what concentrated in London and in the lower middle and lower
working classes.

For most purposes it seems legitimate to consider as a single
group all the people whose only visits to religious buildings are for
weddings and funerals and those who never go at all. They comprise
just on half (48 per cent) of the men and nearly a third (31 per cent)
of the women in the sample. These non-worshippers are heavily
concentrated in the metropolises (51 per cent) and in London and
the South-East; they are relatively fewest (30 per cent) in the South-
West and the small towns and villages. Half of the divorced and
separated fall into this category, but less than a third of the un-
married; there is a difference of 12 per cent between the married
and the single. Very few (20 per cent) of the under 18's fall into this
category, and less than a third of those under 24; the highest total
is reached by those between 25 and 34. The very poor and the most
prosperous have fewer non-worshippers than those in the median
income ranges; and what is perhaps more significant, the members
of the middle class, with 34 per cent, have 10 per cent fewer non-
worshippers than members of the working class. The upper middle
class have the fewest non-worshippers with 26 per cent; the lower
working class has a slightly higher proportion than the working

242

RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

class. On the basis of these figures a married working class man living
in London or Birmingham and their conurbations is unlikely to
make any public profession of religion; women, particularly the
unmarried or widowed, the very young, members of the upper
middle and middle classes, and the inhabitants of the small towns
and villages are much more likely to be at least intermittent church-
goers.3

A variety of circumstances might either prevent people with
religious convictions from attending church services or impel people
without religious convictions to put in an appearance; and it seems
likely that both may be occasionally operative. This is not the case
with the saying of private prayers which therefore seems a more
reliable criterion for religious feeling.

I offered five alternative answers to the question 'Do you say
private prayers?': more than once a day; daily; only in peril and
grief; very seldom; never. The category 'very seldom' was chosen
for the same purpose as the category 'only for weddings and funerals'
in relation to church-going, for the benefit of the meticulous, who
might wonder how childhood prayers should be reckoned, and for
the superstitious ; it was a widely used rubric.

If those who 'very seldom' and 'never5 say private prayers are
treated as a single group they form very much the same size popula-
tion (42 per cent, contrasted with 40 per cent) as those who never go
to church or only for weddings and funerals. The composition of
this group is however somewhat different, and the differences
appear revealing. The differences between region and town size
become very much less, as do the differences between the married
and the single, which suggests that quite a number of married town-
dwellers are prevented by force of circumstances from visiting places
of worship despite their belief; and, on the other hand, quite a
number of people who never pray attend church with some regu-
larity in the small towns and villages where their absence would be
marked by censorious neighbours. The difference between the middle
class and the working class is maintained almost unaltered (38 per
cent of the middle and 45 per cent of the working class seldom or
never say prayers); but there is a marked reversal with the upper
middle class who had the smallest proportion of non-church-goers
(26 per cent) but the highest proportion (47 per cent) of non-prayers.
Over half (53 per cent) of the men but less than a third (29 per cent)
of the women seldom or never pray. The greatest absence of prayer
is found in the groups aged between 18 and 34 earning between £8
and £15 a week; the absence is least with the old, the poor and the

243

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

widowed. The general picture of the younger, married, prosperous
working class English man having no, or only residual, religious
feelings is maintained. This non-religious group is to a considerable
extent the group which served in the Forces in the last war; it is
possible that this experience in one way or another (for example,
compulsory church parades) turned them away from religion; but
since this group is the most sceptical on non-religious subjects also4
this hypothesis is certainly a very tentative one.

It was with wartime experiences in mind that I provided the cate-
gory 'only in peril or grief; and this category is marked somewhat
more by men than women (17 per cent contrasted with 14 per cent),
by people under 34 more than those above that age, and by the
working class slightly more than by the middle class. A few respon-
dents added to this Category 'in thankfulness'; an upper working class
mother from Brighton elaborated 'usually in gratitude for my
husband and babies.'

Two-fifths of the English population make prayer a regular part
of their lives, precisely one-third saying prayers daily, and 11 per
cent more frequently. Nearly twice as many women as men make use
of constant prayer; 16 per cent of the women and 6 per cent of the
men pray more than once a day; 42 per cent of the women and 25
per cent of the men say daily prayers. If daily prayer be taken as a
sign of religious faith, the picture, typical of so many Catholic
countries, of women being the more fervent in their public devotions,
is reproduced in the private devotions of the English.

The North- West, with its high concentration of Roman Catholics,
has the greatest number of regular pray-ers, and the Midlands the
fewest; by the standards of private prayer, rather than church going,
"Birmingham has even fewer devout people than London. The in-
habitants of the small towns and villages pray somewhat more than
people in the rest of the country. Area however in this connection
seems to be much less of a determinant than age and poverty; the
high concentrations of daily or more frequent praying occur in
those aged over 45 with low incomes. Social class makes compara-
tively little difference in the case of the devout praying more than
once a day, save that these people are few in the upper working class;
with daily prayers there are some 8 per cent more in the middle
than in the working class. Relatively few members of the lower
working and upper middle classes say daily prayers.5

Quite a number of English parents who do not go to church or
pray themselves teach their children to do so; but something like a
quarter of English parents do not teach their children to say prayers

244

RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

or send them to Sunday school.6 The relative vagueness of this
statement is due to the fact that 17 per cent of the parents did not
answer the question 'Do you teach your children to say prayers ?*
and 19 per cent 'Do you send your children to Sunday school?';
these non-answerers are predominantly parents for whose children
the questions are not appropriate, the very young whose children
are not old enough to learn these activities, and the old whose
children have long since passed the appropriate age. Only 7 per cent
of the parents aged between 35 and 44 failed to answer the questions.

There is also a further ambiguity about the answers to the question
'Do you teach your children to say prayers?' in that some parents
may have taken the question extremely personally and, when they
have answered 'No' may have meant, not that their children were
not taught prayers, but that they were taught by the other spouse.
Seventeen per cent of the mothers and 32 per cent of the fathers say
they do not teach their children to say prayers ; 52 per cent of the
fathers and 66 per cent of the mothers say they do. The pattern for
not teaching children to say prayers is the same as that for not
praying or visiting a place of worship oneself; it is most concentrated
in London and Birmingham among parents earning £8-£12 a week;
such parents are fewer in the middle class and (slightly anomalously)
the upper working class.

No comments were called for on this question; but nevertheless
a few parents added them, mostly suggesting a rather marked
abdication of parental responsibility. Thus, the wife of a sailor from
Leeds: 'Taught to say prayers up to 3, now I leave it to the children'.
A 32-year-old middle class mother from Hereford: 'I taught my
child to say prayers ; just going through a 'funny' phase and does
not want to say them.' A 37-year-old working class father from
Portslade, Sussex: 'I do not believe in cramming religion down
anyone's throat.'

The 27 per cent of the parents who do not send their children to
Sunday school are evenly divided by sex; the pattern of abstention
is the same for region, town size, age and income as it is for not
teaching to say prayers, but the class composition is slightly different.
The greatest number of abstentions is in the upper middle class,
followed by the lower middle class ; there is only 1 per cent difference
in the habits of the middle and working classes in this practice (the
only practice connected with religion where the middle class is not
markedly more observant than the working class); and the lower
working and upper working classes have the smallest proportion
of abstentions. In this case too, the occasional comment suggests

245

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

that parents will not force the unwilling child; for example the 41-
year-old working class mother from Barking who writes They
don't wish to go (I don't like this)' : or the 30-year-old mother from
Hebburn, Durham: The older boy went to Sunday school for a
few weeks, says he doesn't like it'.

Just over half of all the parents (54 per cent) and two-thirds of
those aged between 35 and 64 send or sent their children to Sunday
school. This can be considered a national custom; apart from the
very young parents, the figure only falls to under 50 per cent in the
metropolises and in the upper middle class; it rises to 59 per cent
or above in the North-East and North, in the £12-£15 a week income
group, in the upper working and lower working classes. The high
figure for the lower working class, which is not otherwise particularly
devout, may derive from the concentration of large families in that
group. When there are more than four children in the family the
children are very likely to attend Sunday school; when there are two
or three children the chances are even whether they be sent or not;
with an only child there is a slight probability (28 per cent of them
go, 36 per cent do not) that it will not be sent.

Question 87 by Question 60

Figure XXXVIII

87. Do your children go to Sunday School?
60. How many children have you?

Question 60

Question 87

5 or
more

answer

Total

Yes

No
No answer

28
36
48

36
37
20

17
18
6

8
5
2

4
3

2
0

100
100
100

Total

100

The high concentration in the North-East and North would appear
to result at least in part from the high concentration of Methodists
and members of other Nonconformist denominations in this area,
for these sects appear to attach much more importance to attendance
at Sunday school than does the Church of England.7

Two-thirds of the parents whose children attend Sunday school
say that they allow their children to go because they (the children)
wish to ; one-third say that they send them. This was a badly worded

246

RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

question, because the two attitudes are not incompatible; but it
does seem a possible explanation for the fact that there is so little
correlation between the parents' own church-going habits and their
children's attendance at Sunday schools. Just on half the parents
who never attend church themselves send their children to Sunday
school; and a slightly higher proportion of those who only do so for
weddings and funerals ; greater devoutness makes very little difference
in the proportion of children who go to Sunday school, except for
those fervent worshippers, going to church more than once a week,
who have a slightly higher proportion of children going to Sunday
school.

Figure XXXIX
Question 84 by Question 87

84. Do you attend church or religious services ?
87. Do your children go to Sunday school?

Question 87

Question S4

Yes

No answer

Total

More than once a week

1*1

100

Once a week

100

Less than once a week but more

than once a month

100

Less than once a month

100

Once or twice a year

18 i 100

Only for weddings and funerals

18 | 100

Never

16 1 100

No answer

100

Total

100

The saying of private prayers is similarly relatively uninfluential
in determining whether children shall go to Sunday school or no;
there is only a 5 per cent difference between the children of those
who say prayers daily, and those who say them 'very seldom*. Even
with the small group of adults who 'never' say prayers themselves
more than half of them send their children to Sunday school.8

With the teaching of children to say prayers, the praying habits
of the parents play a somewhat larger role; three-quarters of those
who say prayers daily or more often, slightly more than half of
those who say them 'very seldom', but only a fifth of those who
'never* say them teach their children to pray.9 It is probable that
all these figures underestimate the proportion of children taught to

247

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Figure XL
Question 85 by Question 87

85. Do you say private prayers?

87, Do your children go to Sunday School?

Question 87

Question 85

Yes

No answer

Total

More than once a day

100

Daily

100

Only in peril and grief

100

Very seldom

100

Never

100

No answer

100

Total

100

Figure XLI
Question 86 by Question 85

86, Do you teach your children to say prayers?
85. Do you say private prayers ?

Question 85

Question 86

More
than
once
a day

Daily

Only in
peril or
grief

Very
seldom

Never

No
answer

Total

Yes

100

No answer

100

Total

100

say prayers because of the meticulousness, referred to above, of
respondents who replied in the negative when it was the other spouse
who actually taught the children to say their prayers.

The beliefs of the parents seem to have greater influence than
their practices in whether they will teach their children to say prayers
or no. Four-fifths of those who believe in an after-life teach their
children to say prayers, a third of those who are uncertain on this
subject, but only half of those who do not believe in life after death.
Beliefs are relatively uninfluential in determining whether children
shall attend Sunday school or no. Those who do not believe in an

248

RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

Figure XLII
Question 92 by Question 86

92. Do you believe m an after-life?

86. Do you teach your children to say prayers ?

Question 86

Question 92

Yes

No answer

Total

Yes

100

Uncertain

100

No answer

100

Total

100

Figure XLIII
Question 92 by Question 87

92. Do you believe m an after-life ?

87. Do your children go to Sunday School?

Question 87

Question 92

Yes

No answer

Total

Yes

100

Uncertain

100

No answer

100

Total

100

after-life send their children to Sunday school slightly less than those
who do, but the difference is only 9 per cent.

Much more indicative of parental piety, and inferentially of the
religious atmosphere of the home, are the occasions on which
prayers are said by the children, rather than the saying of childish
prayers. If the children say prayers at any other time than before
going to bed it is a strong presumption that the parents themselves
are actively religious. Prayers before going to bed are part of the
ritual of the end of the day for most English children, almost inde-
pendently of whether their parents ever say a prayer or attend a
church service or no. But the 8 per cent of the children who are
taught to say prayers in the morning are almost certain to be children
of pious parents.10 Rather inexplicably, this also appears to be

249

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

the case where children are taught to say grace before meals, but
much less so with grace after meals, although the same proportion
(19 per cent in each case) of those parents who teach their children
to pray teach grace before as grace after meals. Grace before meals
correlates markedly and positively with frequent public and private
devotions by the parents; grace after meals does so to a very much
less marked degree.

Figure XLIV

Question 84 by Question 89
84. Do you attend church or religious services?
89. If you teach your children to say prayers, when do they say them?

Question 89

Question 84

Before

Morning

Grace

>Jr»

going
to bed

and
evening

before
meals

after
meals

answer

Total

More than once a week

168

Once a week

155

Less than once a week but

more than once a month

138

Less than once a month

137

Once or twice a year

131

Only for weddings and

funerals

126

Never

—

132

No answer

—

111

Total

136

Figure XLV

Question 85 by Question 89
85. Do you say private prayers?
89. If you teach your children to say prayers, when do they say them?

Question 89

Question 85

Before

Morning

Grace

VJrt

going

and

before

after

Total

to bed

evening

meals

answer

More than once a day

155

Daily

141

Only in peril or grief

125

Very seldom

127

Never

115

No answer

100

—

150

Total

136

250

RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

The distribution of the teaching of the two graces appear strongly
contrasted. Grace before meals is most taught in the two Southern
regions in the metropolises, by the older parents over 45 (especially
the widowed) at the top or bottom of the economic scale, and in the
lower middle and upper middle classes. It is little practiced by the
upper or lower working classes. SociaUy, the pattern of grace after
meals is almost the reverse of this, most frequent in the lower work-
ing, upper working and middle classes and relatively uncommon
in the upper middle and lower middle classes. The poor, the old and
the widowed are again the most frequent teachers of this practice;
but the contrast between people of different ages and incomes is
very much less than with grace before meals. Not very many parents
in the South- West teach their children to say grace after meals, but
this pattern is comparatively common in London and the South-
East. Relatively few parents in the two Northern regions teach grace
either before or after meals.11

Public and private worship, and the religious education of children,
are activities which are found in a great number of societies; infor-
mation about them can give some indication of the role played by
religion in the lives of the members of the society, but very little of
the content of that religion. With insignificant exceptions (the very
small group of Jews and Theosophists, and somewhat less clearly,
the Spiritualists) all my respondents who claimed membership of
any denomination were members of some Christian church or com-
munion; how much of the dogma of Christianity did they believe?

When I devised the questionnaire, I thought it would be useless
to ask my respondents whether they believed in God or the Divinity
of Jesus Christ, for I imagined that, where there was no faith,
superstition would stop people giving negative answers. I think now
that I probably misjudged the courage and candour of my respon-
dents, and would have got significant answers to such questions.
However the questions I did ask on religious belief were more
indirect.

I assume that (with the possible exception of some of the very
small Protestant sects) Christians of all denominations should believe
in the Trinity and in the Incarnation, Passion and Resurrection of
Jesus Christ. They should also believe that the soul survives after
the death of the body and comes to Judgment; those who have led
good lives on earth are rewarded by heaven, while unrepentant
evil-doers are punished by consignment, either temporarily or
eternally, to some other and painful place or condition designated

251

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

as hell or purgatory. Belief in hell and purgatory is a matter of dogma
for Roman Catholics; most Protestant sects do not use the concept
of purgatory; but whatever the definition, it would seern that a
Christian must believe in the existence of hell as well as of heaven,
though it may not be necessary to believe that any soul is perma-
nently damned. The dogmatic position of belief in the devil would
seem to be rather more obscure; but there are numerous references
to his existence in the Gospels.12

Precisely three-fifths of the English population state definitely
that they believe neither in hell nor in the devil. The remainder are
almost evenly divided between belief and uncertainty; 20 per cent
say they believe in the devil and 18 per cent in hell; the figures for
uncertainty are just the reverse, 18 per cent uncertain about the
devil and 20 per cent about hell; 2 per cent did not answer the ques-
tion. Those who believe in the devil but not in hell are almost entirely
women, predominantly from the small villages in the South- West,
very young or elderly. The sex and location of these believers in the
devil could perhaps be interpreted as a faint survival of the witch
cult in the West country. The lower working class is the only group
in the community having more believers in hell than in the devil.

The patterns of belief and disbelief follow those for church
attendance and prayer, though the negative figures are higher in
every case. Two-thirds of the men, but only one-half of the women
express disbelief in these two concepts ; the greatest concentration
of disbelief is in the younger married men living in London or
Birmingham and earning a weekly income of £12 a week or more.
The believers, and those who are uncertain, are predominantly
women; but whereas apart from sex, the uncertain are fairly evenly
distributed throughout the community, the believers tend to come
from the two Western regions, to be either under 18 or over 45, and
to be poor with incomes under £8 a week.13

A certain number of people stated a purely metaphorical belief in
the devil and hell; typical is a 28-year-old married woman from
Ayrdale, Yorks, who writes: 4I believe both the devil and hell
are inside each one of us; we make our own.' In contrast to this a
72-year-old widower from a small town near Rudesy, Yorks, does
not believe in hell fires, but is

absolutely certain about the existence of the devil. At the age of 18
I attended a Methodist Chapel. The preacher said there is no such things
as a personal devil. I went home and challenged the Almighty and he sent
him and by his help I withstood him for about 5 minutes. I asked the
Almighty to send him to hell. Hegrowled like a roaring lion and departed.

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RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

Although the evidence from the past is not strictly comparable,
it seems reasonable to suppose that the belief in hell, and, conse-
quently, of possible damnation, was held by a much larger propor-
tion of the population than the 18 per cent of today. With its virtual
disappearance it could be argued that the major supernatural
sanctions of Christianity have also disappeared, for, implicitly, if
there is no belief in hell the concept of Judgment also becomes
meaningless; and then all that is left of Christianity is a system of
ethics with closer resemblance to such a system as Confucianism
than to any of the major historical religions. As will be developed
subsequently, belief in Judgment is very uncommon even in that
portion of the English population who believes in a future life.

Just on half the population — 47 per cent — state that they do
believe in a future life; a third — 30 per cent — state that they are
uncertain; a little under a quarter — 22 per cent — state that they do
not believe in an after-life. One per cent did not answer this question.

As in all matters of religious belief there is a very marked contrast
between men and women; 39 per cent of the men and 56 per cent of
the women believe in an after-life; 28 per cent of the men and 14
per cent of the women do not; 31 per cent of the men and 29 per cent
of the women are uncertain. The 'uncertain' group is extremely
evenly divided throughout the population, no section of it going
more than 3 per cent above the national average of 30 per cent; the
only groups which fall more than 3 per cent below it are the elderly
(over 45) the widowed, the very poor and, slightly surprisingly, the
upper middle class.

These are also the groups with the greatest amount of positive
belief; belief is also relatively high in the small towns and villages
and in the South-West, among the under 18's, and in the middle,
lower middle and upper working classes, in comparison with the
working and lower working classes. The distribution of disbelief is
already familiar, highest among the younger men living in the
metropolises and earning an income around £12 a week. The con-
trast between the social classes is relatively slight, except for the
comparative scarcity of non-believers in the upper middle, lower
middle and upper working classes.14

The 47 per cent of the population who said they believed in an
after-life were asked 'What do you think it will be like ?' and just on
half of these gave detailed answers. Thirty-five per cent of the men
and 45 per cent of the women predominantly those under 35, left
the question unanswered, and approximately a further 10 per cent
of both sexes replied that they had no idea, or didn't know. The

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

detailed answers consequently derive only from a portion of a
minority, about half of the people who believe in an after-life; but
these respondents are extremely evenly divided among the total
population, and follow very closely the proportions of the member-
ship of the different denominations ;15 they can, I think, be considered
a representative cross-section of the total sample population.

The views expressed on the nature of the after-life are extremely

varied ; in order to make any sort of tabulation possible I had to

establish ten categories based on the presence or absence of certain

phrases in the replies. Since some people offer alternatives there is

a certain amount of overlapping. There was also a small group of

4 per cent whose belief in the after-life was purely metaphorical;

one survived in the memory of others, transformed into flowers and so

on. Typical of such views is that of a 25-year-old man from Watford;

When a body is buried, and subsequently rots, the germs, or what

other matter is left, could act as a food or fertiliser in the soil, people or

animals would eventually eat the 'germs', thus a likeness of the deceased

person, possibly could exist in any future generation of man or animal.

The holders of this metaphorical belief appear to be mostly the
middle-aged and elderly.

The ten categories into which the responses were divided are as
follows :

(i) Scriptural Heaven and Hell and I or Purgatory.

(Direct references to the Bible and/or Judgment: the good

rewarded, the bad punished.)
(ii) Scriptural Heaven.

(References to God, Jesus, the Holy Family, but no reference

to Judgment or punishment for the wicked.)
(iii) Not like Scriptural Heaven.

(Explicit disbelief in angels, harps, etc.)
(iv) Beauty, Rest, Peace, etc.

(Stated positively; no reference to God.)
(v) Absence of evil, pain, worry, inequality, etc.

(Stated negatively; no reference to God.)
(vi) Rejoining loved ones.
(vii) Watching over loved ones.
(viii) Like this life.
(ix) Reincarnation.

(Implicitly or explicitly on this earth.)
(x) Life on another planet.

The criteria by which the believers in the after-life were placed
in the first category (Scriptural Heaven and Hell) were very generously
interpreted. The quoting of any Biblical verse16 or any reference

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to punishment for, or expiation of, sin place people in this category,
even if the phrasing is far from orthodox. Thus, for example, a
17-year-old student from Morecambe, Lanes:

A paradise full of objective living people. A place where one must
work off ones sins by being, for example, a guardian angel to some
mortal being. When one's sins are worked off one can take one's rest.

Similarly a young girl from Bury St Edmunds :

When I die all the jobs I have ever neglected I will have to sit and do
everything twice over with burning fires around.

Other respondents define the dogmatic position precisely and
concisely. Thus, a 29-year-old married woman from Stockton-on-
Tees, a Methodist, writes :

I believe in the Resurrection of the body at the worlds end and believe

the good shall go on living as taught in our Creed.

A 45-year-old married working class man from Walsall, a Roman
Catholic:

I expect to go to purgatory to make amends for my sins in this world,
when these have been made through my own prayers and the prayers
of friends left on earth I expect to continue a spiritual life with our
Lord.

Even stretching every point, only 14 per cent of the men and 1 1
per cent of the women who believe in an after-life (which, it must
be remembered is slightly less than half the sample) can be included
in this category; they are extremely evenly divided throughout the
population, except for a little concentration on the North- West, in
the upper middle and upper working classes. This 6 per cent of the
total population are all who profess belief in the full dogma of
Christianity.

There is a further 5 per cent (11 per cent of the men and 7 per cent
of the women believing in an after-life) who make reference to the
Holy Family, or to angels or other figures from Revelations, without
any reference to Judgment or expiation, as though heaven were
automatically achieved by death. This view finds somewhat more
proponents among the middle-aged and elderly, from the Midlands
and North- West and from the lower middle class. It is little mentioned
by members of the upper middle and lower working classes.

In this category, too, some very unorthodox views were included.
Thus, a 19-year-old architectural student from Lancashire:

Heaven is a school where we can learn how to live the correct way
without having the devil to annoy us. God is the headmaster and he is
the example we shall have to emulate.

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A 69-year-old unmarried middle class man from Kingston-upon-
Hull:

I believe the soul to be infinite— and according to what one puts into
the banking account of Divine Power the credit balance will be
unlimited.

A man from Newcastle-on-Tyne:

A world possible Earth, peopled by everybody who ever lived, with
no diseases or tragedy or wars, to mar what will be a paradisiacal, and
sublime state of living. God will live, in this world, to rule us, we shall
be able to see Him, and his whole plan will be revealed to us. There will
be no cold and no class distinctions apart from Holy Family which of
course is only right.

A 17-year-old girl student:

I think it will be lovely with hosts of angels and good living people.
No wrong doing at all. And I think it will be like walking on air, a thing
that will never end.

A 25-year-old unmarried miner from Whitwick, Leicester:

I really have very little idea but I do give Our Lord shape and figure
in my prayers so that I believe we shall all meet again in recognizable
form.

The only other references to specifically Christian beliefs about
the after-life come from the small group (5 per cent men and 2 per
cent women of those believing in an after-life) who define their
beliefs negatively: 'NOT as described in Revelations' (an 18-year-old
girl from East Croydon); 'NOT the Anglican conception' (an 81-
year-old man from Bridlington5 Yorks). These people choosing a
negative definition tend to be young and to come from the small
towns and villages.17

Slightly more than a quarter of those who believe in an after-life
at all envisage an eternity of untroubled leisure. Twelve per cent of the
men and 19 per cent of the women stress the positive features of this
future, peace, rest, security etc.; 10 per cent of the men and 12 per
cent of the women the absence of negative features, no more war,
or want, or sex, or other undesirable characteristics of the present
life. The positive features seem to appeal more particularly to the
less prosperous members of the community, especially in the
Midlands and to members of all social classes except the upper
middle. The absence of negative features appeals less to members
of the middle and working classes than to those of other social
classes, and less to people in the Midlands than in other areas.18

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Many of these eternal longings are of a very material nature.
The following quotations are typical:

A 41-year-old married woman of West Bromwich, Staffs; 'just
a decent working class family' :

It will be a wonderful place with everything just right and there will
be plenty of lovely food without rationing I hope.

A 25-year-old married Lincolnshire woman:

I think it will be nice and warm, friendly, no quarrelling, people just
floating about in a hazy atmosphere, a rosy glow turning to blue then
gold and so on.

An 18-year-old youth from Dunstable, Beds:

A life at the age that you liked best, in the company of the people
you liked most of all, and doing all the things you found most enjoyable
on Earth.

A 17-year-old Lancashire girl:

I can imagine it to be something like a pleasant holiday we planned
and never took, somewhere where we would be able to think things out
and just relax.

A 38-year-old married woman from Keswick:

A place where I can study and travel, hear good conversation, be able
to help other people on, no money troubles.

A 41-year-old divorced working class woman from Oldham:
Similar to life here but no sex life.

A 20-year-old girl from Skipton, Yorks:

I should think it will be slightly easier in the next life, because without
our bodies we will not be troubled by carnal lusts of the flesh.

A middle class married woman from Berkhamsted:

More peaceful than the present one, with no cold, wars or washing up.
I hope there will be animals music and no towns; a kind of ideal earth
in heaven. I hope everyone will be able to remain at the age at which
they were happiest on earth.

A young woman from Bishop's Stortford:

I believe it will be a very happy place, with no colour bars, no 'class*
distinction, no intonation of speech, a place where everyone will have a
job to do, no matter whether he was king or peasant in this world, a
place where there will be a common language. Jesus Christ and his
twelve disciples will be a form of Government, there will be no opposi-
tion, for there will be nothing to oppose.

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A few of the men envisage this abstract after-life with something
less than enthusiasm. Thus, a 25-year-old middle class man from
West Byfieet:

Something I can hardly visualize, but approximating to the Yoga

astral planes; just thought and meditation; although that seems dull to

me at this moment.

An unmarried working class man from East Moseley:

Not as good as the present as far as physical enjoyment is concerned,
but more advanced and developed mind power as of the spirit. It
remains to be seen, however.

For a further 6 per cent of the total (14 per cent of the women and
9 per cent of the men who believe in any sort of after-life) human
love is stronger than death, and they envisage the after-life as
rejoining their loved ones, or, in the case of 3 per cent of each sex,
'watching over' their loved ones, without any considerable precision
as to where this operation takes place or the conditions of the
watcher. These beliefs, understandably, appeal to the middle-aged
and elderly rather than to the young, to the married and especially
the widowed, rather than to the single. The lower middle and upper
working classes hold this belief somewhat less than the other social
classes; otherwise it is very evenly divided.19

Most of the respondents expressed this belief fairly tersely, but a
few of them elaborate. Thus, a 26-year-old married woman from a
village near Hitchin:

A meeting of friends and relations, possibly as one knew them when
they 'passed over', or if they were very old — to become younger about
50-60. I imagine a kind of sphere where the Spirit World still works,
such as tending gardens and doing good deeds for the people left
behind.

A married woman from Little Snoring, near Fakenham, Norfolk:
I was always taught as a child to believe in God even though the road
through which we travel might not be smooth. This I do and hope when
I draw my last fleeting breath I shall be re-united with my mother, sister
and baby daughter, in the land where there is no pain.

A 65-year-old general foreman from Essex:

My personal belief is that although I shall not be seen, I shall be able
to be near those I have loved in life and may be able to communicate
with them sometimes as my mother often does when I am peaceful in
bed. She has been gone since 1914, but has told me many things since.

A betrothed middle class girl from a small Leicestershire town:

The journey into affinity through clouds, coloured rays, beyond the
stars to the celestial throne. All have work guardians for mortals,

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RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

helpers to the spirits of music, love, poetry, emissionaries of all the
worlds virtues. One does not loose the true love of one's mate on earth,
Love being the greatest thing in heaven or earth.

A 45-year-old middle class married man from Birmingham:

When one passes over to the other side one is met by relatives friends
etc. whom one recognizes because the spirit has a face form and not a
material body. The spirits are clothed in a colour. The colour will
depend upon the person's deeds on the earth plane. Red indicates evil
deeds, blue good deeds, pale blue being the brightest and purest spirits.
Spirits when they attain a certain colour are allowed if they wish to
return to earth and help their loved ones.

One respondent envisages some disadvantages to this reunion
with loved ones. She is an unmarried middle class woman of 55 with
a 93 year old mother whom she can only leave for very short periods.
She writes: *I do not think we shall know each other, as if one
member of a family was missing the result would be very saddening.'

A quarter of all of those who believe in an after-life (an eighth of
the population) do not appear to believe that this after-life will be
eternal. Eleven per cent believe in future lives just like their present
life, 2 per cent believe in life on another planet, and 11 per cent
believe in reincarnation, either implicitly or explicitly on this earth.

The relative prevalence of the belief in reincarnation (explicit
statements come from 252 individuals out of a population of 5,000)
is perhaps the most surprising single piece of information to be
derived from this research. Reincarnation is a belief of the major
Asiatic religions, but it is contrary to the creeds of all the established
religions of Europe and the Near East. The Theosophists imported
it into Europe at the end of the last century, but they comprise a
minute portion of my sample; and, apart from the Presbyterians,
some members of every denomination subscribe to this belief, though
many of its holders must be 'undenominational'.

There seem to be two possible sources from which the belief was
diffused: firstly, films elaborating the 'When-I-was-a-king-in-
Babylon-and-you-were-a-Christian-slave' type of fantasy; and
secondly, the magazines on astrology and 'the occult' which appear
to have quite a large circulation. And in some ways the concept of
reincarnation is not incongruous with other themes in English
Hfe, the emphasis on, and the value given to, gradualness, and the
strange complex of attitudes towards animals.

By and large the believers in reincarnation are very evenly dis-
tributed throughout the population; they are somewhat fewer in
the upper middle and lower working classes, among the poor, the

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old, the widowed and those living in small towns and villages and
in the South- West. All these groups however (with the exception of
the lower working class) hold rather more strongly than the rest
of the community a belief in future lives "just like the present'; the
upper working class, and people aged between 18 and 24 are the
only other groups with relatively few members holding this belief.
Members of the upper middle, upper working and lower working
classes do not mention life on another planet.20

One of the themes or metaphors (it is not always easy to distin-
guish which is intended) in these descriptions of the future lives
expected is continued education, with the present life compared to
or equated with the sojourn in one school class.

Thus, a 43-year-old married man from S.E. London:

A question hard to answer, but believing this world to be a school
for adults, I believe the next life will be in accordance to what we've
learned and taught here.

A 25-year-old single upper middle class man from Falmouth,
Cornwall:

Each 'soul' having various incarnations learning each time on earth
some vital lesson in the pathway to perfection and having graduated
the final 'After life' will be spent in 'University' studying to perfect a
perfect civilization. The surroundings — unimaginable but probably earth
like.

A 56-year-old married working class man from Derby:

A series of examinations, getting more like God would have us, with
final perfection.

A professional soldier with his home in Warwick:

Divided into various stages where a person will have to pass through
each stage, each one better than the other. A man will have to better
himself accordingly.

An old man from Blackpool, Lanes:
New world with a higher standard of education.

A well educated married woman from Farnborough, aged 36 :

A long long, peaceful rest first. Then a looking back on the past
mistakes and failures. A clear seeing of what went wrong and how. A
complete knowing, then back to work again to do better.

An educated married man from Newcastle-on-Tyne :

It will be entirely one of 'thought-process' and extremely cultural.
The appreciation of beauty and goodness will be the target of all 'spirits'.
There will be a 'selection board' and some 'spirits' will be given a
number of 'chances' before being condemned to destruction.

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RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

A 30-year-old married man from Hanweli:

My spirit will enter another body (not necessarily on this planet) and
carry on its education towards perfection.

A young woman from Herne Bay:

I am rather vague on this, loving life as I do I am inclined to sheer off
such thoughts. I'd prefer to think we're given a chance on another
planet. Knowing the mistakes we made in this life we wouldn't make
them in the other life. Heaven suggests peace, and tranquility — no
trials and tribulations not even a breeze to disturb that peace. Am
inclined to think would be rather dull.

A working class married man from Marlborough:

A difficult question. I only feel this life cannot be the end of every-
thing. I regard life as being only one phase of preparation for some-
thing higher. After this life it may be that we pass on to another stage
of our preparation.

A 30-year-old single man from Nelson, Colne, 'working class
with a middle class outlook' :

That according to how you have lived your life whilst on earth, so
you shall return to reach a certain standard either in a lower form (if
under) or a higher form (if that standard has been attained) quite
possibly on another planet.

Another sizable group of respondents do not give any reasons
for continuous rebirth except for a few who seem preoccupied with
a celestial housing problem: thus, a divorced woman from Chester-
field writes :

If all the 'dead' over the ages are 'to live' there won't be much room.

And a 24-year-old working class married man from Stroud, Glos. :
I believe that the soul is immortal and that it returns to earth in
another body when our present body dies. I don't believe in Heaven as
an ever-lasting resting place of all souls as there couldn't possibly be room
for all the souls that have passed on since the world began.

A 26-year-old married man from Clare, W. Suffolk:

Certainly not 'stuffy' like the average Church life. I should think
similar to this life but more nebulous.

A 33-year-old 'respectable shopkeeper class' woman, from Maldon,
Essex, separated:

My spirit will possibly slip into a body of the next generation, try to
make all the changes I would make now if I could start again, and
thereby probably make the life of the future body (hell).

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A young miner from Durham:

Like life on this earth, but in a different form, they say that if a man
leads a bad life when he does come back again he will be a woman.

A working class man from Nuneaton:
I think every one will change their sex.

A 59-year-old working class man from South Shields, Durham:

Reincarnation with similar existence on another planet or similar
sphere of influence or on another plane differing from our present
existence. My belief based on the immortality of the something we term
the soul and utilization of its future use.

Finally there are a number of respondents who carry their belief
in reincarnation to the logical point of imagining human souls
passing into animals; though, with one possible exception, none of
these respondents suggested that animals contained souls which
had previously been in human bodies. This possible exception is a
59-year-old married woman from South Devon who writes :

We come back as a bird, earth was made for us to walk and I feel

the sky is for us also that is why I think we will be birds I often think

this when I see a school of birds flying over.

A 31 -year-old middle class married man from Brighton, Sussex:
I believe we return as something other than a human being. I'd like
to be a Seagull! Reasons. I'm mad about gliding and What a wonderfully
clean life a seagull has.

A 33-year-old middle class man from Haywards Heath, Sussex:

If one has been evil in life, they are reborn in an animal or insect
state. If good, reborn in human form and in better station of life.

A young man from Dewsbury, Yorks :

You fall into space and all your old thoughts and memorys die and
you come back as a new mind into a newborn child or animal.

An upper working class woman from Truro :
I think reincarnation is some form or other, not necessarily human.

A prosperous married man, 29-year-old, from Chigwell, Essex:

I think that if everyone has lived a good life, they will be some animal
with daylight activities, to enjoy the sunshine and like, but if they have
been bad they will be Like mice and rates and other nocturnal animals,
so under cover of darkness they can hide their shame and not enjoy
the beauty of Gods world.

A 35-year-old 'lower class' married man from Newent, Glos.:

Well I think if a man's been cruel to an animal or some other creature
I mean cruel to a great extent knowing full well he had been cruel I
think he will come back and suffer like such.21

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RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

The immortality of the soul is not the only form of after-life with
which the English are acquainted ; there are also ghosts and hauntings,
which are uncertainly connected with the soul or with the survival
of consciousness. A sixth of the population say that they believe in
ghosts, just under a quarter are uncertain and two-thirds do not,
gross figures which are almost identical with the belief in the Christian
conception of Hell. There are two men to three women among the
believers in ghosts (13 per cent and 21 per cent); the uncertain are
nearly evenly divided; the disbelievers have some 10 per cent more
men than women. By and large the pattern of scepticism is much
the same as we have seen for religious beliefs, the prosperous married
working class men being the least believing, but there is one interest*
ing reversal; scepticism increases steadily with age, with a greater
concentration among those aged over 45; those between 18 and 34
have the greatest number of 'uncertain' replies. Since the number
holding orthodox religious beliefs and following religious practices
increase with age, these figures suggest that an active belief in
Christianity and a belief in ghosts may be to a certain extent
incompatible.

Quite a number of those who are 'uncertain' about ghosts possess
acquaintances whom they believe have seen or heard a ghost — some
10 per cent of the total, evenly divided among the sexes. This
modified credulity is slightly more widespread in the middle than
in the working class. The people from the North-East and North,
who have the fewest actual believers in ghosts, have the greatest
number of uncertain respondents, and nearly as many acquain-
tances who have seen or heard ghosts as any other part of the
country.

Somewhat unexpectedly, the greatest belief in ghosts comes from
London and the South-East, followed by the Midlands. I had thought
that the belief in ghosts would be most common in the West country
and in the small towns and villages; in point of fact it is nearly as
frequent in the metropolises as in the villages, and somewhat less
frequent in the middle-sized towns. With few exceptions the belief
in ghosts is remarkably evenly distributed throughout the popula-
tion; there is slightly more belief among the poor, the widowed, the
young, and the members of the upper middle class; apart from the
regional differences, the only significant drop in belief comes from
people aged between 25 and 34.

Those who believed in ghosts were asked if they themselves had
seen or heard a ghost. Three hundred and fifty-one people (out of a
total population of 5,000) replied in the affirmative; 189 in the

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negative; and 298 were uncertain. If 7 per cent of the total population
are convinced that they have seen or heard a ghost, one is driven to
one of two conclusions : either a sizable proportion of the population
suffers from delusions or the country contains a great number of
ghosts. Nothing in my data can indicate which conclusion is the
more probable.

Although the numbers are small, it is interesting to note that the
distribution for experience of ghosts is in many ways sharply con-
trasted with that for belief in ghosts. Thus, there is practically no
significant difference in this respect between men and women; and
the claimed experience mounts steadily with age, the big increase
being over the age of 35, which is what one might expect theoretically
if witnessing a ghost were a real but uncommon experience. Simi-
larly, considerably more married people than unmarried (who are
mostly younger) claim to have experienced a ghost. Although a
higher proportion of members of the middle class than of the working
class believe in ghosts, the proportions are reversed when experience
is asked for. The most surprising reverse is on the regions; the
traditionally credulous South-West and the traditionally hard-
headed North-East and North have the same proportion of people
claiming to have experienced a ghost, and these two regions are
lower than the rest of the country, the Midlands being by a small
degree the highest. Considerably more people who have experience
of a ghost come from towns with less than 100,000 inhabitants than
from larger ones.

Although most of the people who believe in ghosts believe in
an after-life, the third of these believers who claim to have seen or
heard a ghost are almost evenly divided between belief and disbelief
in an after-life.22

Only very few respondents gave any details of their experience
with ghosts — the lay-out of the questionnaire gave little space even
to the most persistent writers of additional material A married man,
now living at Runcorn, Cheshire, gave the address of a house in
Widnes, Lanes, which had ghosts in it while he lived there, and which
were also seen by the succeeding residents; a married woman from
Worcester Park, Surrey, says their house has its own resident spirit;
and a retired black-coated worker from Southend-on-Sea, aged 74£
writes :

I know definitely that a young brother of mine appeared to mother

(in Brixton) at the precise moment of his death in Hong Kong. She

awakened us at the time. The official news from the Colonial Office

arrived four days later.

264

RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

Ghosts are not necessarily outside established religion, as the
perplexities of Hamlet well demonstrate; but there are also a number
of devices for foreseeing the future or controlling the future which
are quite unconnected with religion.

One of the simplest of these devices is the lucky mascot, the fetish
(in the strict sense of the term) which will preserve its owner from
misfortune; these are owned by 15 per cent of the population, one
man in eight and one woman in five. This custom is very evenly
distributed throughout the population; the very young (under 18)
are much given to it, and there is some concentration among the poor,
the widowed and the inhabitants of the South- West; but the only
groups which fall to 12 per cent or below are the people aged between
25 and 34 and the lower middle class. There are proportionately
somewhat more mascots in the upper middle and middle classes
than in the upper working and working classes.23

During the war the carrying of mascots was a habit with a different
distribution. Fourteen per cent of the total population — slightly
more men than women — had a war-time mascot; since less than
half the total population were in the services, this means that
roughly one serving man or woman in three had his or her private
piece of solid magic. The holding of wartime mascots reverses the
general pattern of scepticism: the concentration is among the
married men aged 25 to 34. High proportions of the upper middle
and lower working classes carried war-time mascots; there were a
few more holders of wartime mascots among the middle than among
the working class. The practice was once again lowest in the lower
middle class.

The mascot which will bring good and avert bad fortune at least
demands the minimum activity of acquiring and keeping the magical
object; but something between a quarter and a fifth of the population
believe that luck is controlled mechanically without any effort on
the part of the individual beyond discerning the pattern. Twenty-
four per cent of the population believe that some number or numbers
are especially lucky or unlucky for them; 17 per cent that special
days carry automatically good or bad fortune.

These beliefs are predominantly optimistic; 18 per cent believe in
a lucky number, compared with 3 per cent believing in an unlucky
one, and a further 3 per cent who discern both lucky and unlucky
numbers; 9 per cent believe in a lucky day, compared with 5 per
cent in an unlucky one and 3 per cent who discern both patterns.
It seems reasonable to trace a connection between this relatively
common belief in automatic luck and the very great prevalence of

265

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

petty gambling in the English population in football pools and
similar 'competitions',

As usual, there are slightly more women than men believing in the
supernatural, but the contrast is not very great; and as usual there
is slightly more scepticism among the married moderately prosperous
members of the working class aged between 25 and 34. There is most
belief in the special qualities of days and numbers in the lower
working class and in the middle class ; in this respect the upper middle
class is as sceptical as the lower middle and upper working classes.
Fewer people from the North-East and North hold these beliefs
than do those from the rest of the country.24

People may discover their lucky or unlucky days or numbers
for themselves, or they may have them pointed out to them by
professional fortune-tellers. Just on half the population (44 per cent)
have consulted a fortune-teller at some time of their lives. Very
few people go to a fortune-teller before they are 18, and not very
many before they are 24; but apart from age, between 40 and 50 per
cent of the population in every category of social class, income,
region and town size have visited fortune-tellers, and only the very
poor, the widowed and the divorced exceed 50 per cent. There is,
however, a most striking difference in the sexes; two-thirds of the
women, but only just over a quarter of the men, consult these
professional prophets.25

Probably many people go once in their lives to a fortune-teller,
'just for a lark*; and that is the case for two-thirds of the men and
a third of the women in the main sample. Approximately a fifth of
the men and a quarter of the women had two consultations; the
remainder — one-sixth of the men and nearly two-fifths of the women
were more frequent addicts (some 7 per cent of the total population).
There is little that can be said about this group except that most
of its members are aged over 35; they are very evenly divided
among the population.26

Just on half of those who consulted a fortune-teller — that is to
say a fifth of the total population — consider that the predictions
made came true, either in whole or in part! Seven per cent of the
consultants did not answer, 11 per cent said they did not know or
could not remember; only a little over a third said definitely that
nothing at all came true.

The affirmative answers were categorized in three ways : a simple
*yes' without qualifications (accounting for 30 per cent of $11 the
consultants), 'yes, some of it' (accounting for 15 per cent) and 'yes,
all of it' (accounting for 2 per cent). The belief in accurate prophecy

266

RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

goes up with age, but is otherwise most evenly distributed through-
out the population. As the figures show, it is one of the most widely
held beliefs in the supernatural.27

Two hundred and seventy-five people— 6 per cent of the total
population— claim the ability to tell fortunes themselves. Three
times as many women as men make this claim; but the numbers
are so few that one can say little more about this prophetic group
than that it tends to be aged over 45. One hundred and thirteen of
them read cards, one hundred and one read tea-leaves, ninety-three
read hands, and a further 53 use other devices. Where men claim
to be fortune-tellers they are liable to use at least two of the techniques
mentioned; women are more likely to be satisfied with a single mantic
medium.28

Only a few respondents elaborated their claims to prophetic
powers. Some claimed to be accurate palmists, or 'face-readers';
there were a few people who stated that they had prophetic dreams;
a 'poor professional' married woman from Yorkshire writes that
she is 'interested in Circle Seance sittings — emergence of secondary
personalities in trance states. Have myself foretold things to friends
(nothing very momentous), at the moment think it subconscious
telepathy not the dear departed.' A 48-year-old middle class married
man from Liverpool is rather like a character out of a novel by
Arthur Machen; he is a member of 'a circle of magicians', has seen
numerous ghosts and can tell fortunes; he considers that the after-
life will resemble Dante's Inferno; and considers his greatest fault
to be 'Seeing things that I should not see' !

Of course, it is not necessary to go to the trouble to visit a fortune-
teller to get a preview of the future; nearly all the Sunday papers,
and many weekly magazines, with mass circulation carry a 'horo-
scope' feature, with forecasts for the coming period divided
according to the zodiacal sign or birthday, but not further
particularized.

Since the questionnaire was circulated by the People, I asked my
respondents whether they read the prophecies of that paper's
astrologer, who signs himself 'Lyndoe9, regularly, occasionally, or
never. Just half the respondents — 41 per cent of the men and 62 per
cent of the women—are regular readers; another two-fifths — 45 per
cent of the men and 31 per cent of the women — are occasional
readers; a mere 10 per cent do not read him at all. It seems probable
that much of this 10 per cent is composed of those respondents who
were reached from other sources than the regular readers of the
People] they are predominantly young, from prosperous families

267

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

and more than twice as many men as women; a relatively high
proportion claim upper middle class status.

If this be the case, then slightly more than half of the readers of
the People are regular readers of the horoscope section, and the
remainder occasional ones, a not improbable combination; though
it is at least questionable whether the political or editorial pages
have so many regular readers. Regular reading is in inverse relation-
ship to income, with the dividing line at the family income of about
£12 a week. It also tends to increase directly with age, but there are
a couple of exceptions to this: there are fewer regular readers be-
tween the ages of 18 and 24 than above or below this age; and the
apex of regular reading comes between 45 and 64, with over two-
thirds of the people of this age, rather than with the aged. There is
slightly more regular reading in the two western regions, and slightly
less in the metropolises than in the smaller communities, but these
are only minor variations. The highest proportion of regular readers
belong to the middle class, and the lowest to the upper middle and
lower middle, all three working class groups being on the national
average.

Since it was possible that people might feel constrained, out of a
sense of politeness, to say they read the People's feature, they were
also asked if they read the horoscope in any other paper or magazine?
A quarter of the men and half the women did so regularly, half the
men and two-fifths of the women did so occasionally; just on a
quarter of the men, but less than a tenth of the women never did so.
Something like four-fifths of the English population read more than
one horoscope weekly.29

As with 'Lyndoe' the regular reading of second horoscopes varies
quite consistently with income, the lower the income the higher the
readership; and, between the ages of 25 and 64, tends to increase
with age. There is most consistent reading in the middle class,
followed by the working class; all the other classes read horoscopes
less consistently. The most confirmed non-readers are found in the
lower middle and lower working classes, and among the more
prosperous.

People were asked which other papers they read their horoscopes
in, but the answers were not tabulated. Among Sunday papers the
News of the World and the Sunday Express figured most frequently;
the most frequently mentioned magazines were Woman, Woman's
Own and papers of similar title; and it was curious to note how
many men at least glanced at papers specially designed for their
wives.

268

RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

People might read horoscopes for diversion, without taking them
seriously, and that appears to be the case with something over half
the men and a third of the women; but a sixth of the men and a
little over a quarter of the women think 'there is something in
horoscopes' ; the remainder, around a third of the total for each sex,
is uncertain. These figures for belief are slightly less than the figures
for belief in the after-life, but considerably greater than for belief
in hell or the devil.30

The pattern of belief in horoscopes follows closely the pattern
for the reading of horoscopes as far as income is concerned, the
lower the income the greater the belief; and there is greater belief
above the age of 35. Belief is lowest for people between the ages of
18 and 34, in the North-East and North (though this region has the
greatest proportion of 'uncertain5 answers) and in the lower middle
and upper working classes. Disbelief is very high in the upper middle,
lower middle and upper working classes; uncertainty is very evenly
divided throughout the population ; it is very high with the under
18's and low with the over 65's and the upper middle class.

Four per cent of the women and 2 per cent of the men say that
they regularly follow the advice given in the horoscopes; a further
16 per cent of the men and 29 per cent of the women say that they
do so occasionally. These figures strike me as quite astounding;
one wonders if any other type of public communication is quite so
influential when there is no emergency.31

The number who follow horoscope advice 'regularly' is so small
that the figures of distribution give little guide. Most of these people
seem to be under 18 or over 45 and of low income. If the 25 per cent
of the population who say that they are influenced either regularly
or occasionally by the advice of horoscopes are summated, one
finds that there are very few categories where there is a variation
of more than 3 per cent from the national norm; the under 18's and
over 45's, the widowed and the lower working class have rather
numerous followers of horoscope advice; people between the ages
of 18 and 34, with incomes of over £12 a week and in the lower
middle class have rather fewer; but only in the lower middle class and
the £12-£15 income group does the total come to less than 20 per
cent.

About a quarter of the population, it would seem, holds a view
of the universe which can most properly be designated as magical;
the future is, for them, pre-determined and knowable by various
techniques which are not connected with either science or religion;
for some the bad potentialities of the future can be avoided by the

269

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

employment of mascots or following the advice of newspaper
astrologers, and the good potentialities increased by the same devices ;
for others good or bad luck is mechanically connected with numbers
or days of the week. Such views are quite unconnected with any
system of ethics ; although the view of the universe is not materialist,
it is mechanical (so to speak); there is practically no connection
between effort and reward, transgression and punishment. It is
above all passive; the future lies not in ourselves but in the stars.

It will not have escaped notice that, to a very considerable extent,
those sections of the population who are most given to the magical
view of the universe are also the most fervent in the practice of their
religion; and those groups who are most sceptical about fortune-
telling and horoscopes are also the least religious in belief or practice.
The one exception to this generalization is the use of mascots during
the war.

NOTES TO CHAPTER FOURTEEN

1. These figures can be usefully compared with those collected by the Research
Section of Odhams Press in September 1947 from 3,019 interviews administered in
110 areas in England, Wales and Scotland to respondents over 18, even though the
population (since it includes Wales and Scotland) and the categories employed are
somewhat different. This population divided as follows: 54 per cent Church of
England, 9 per cent Roman Catholic, 22 per cent Nonconformist (Methodist, Baptist,
Congregationalist, etc.), 7 per cent 'other* (Spiritualist, Salvation Army, etc.), 8 per cent
no denomination. The low figure for those claiming no denomination in an interview
is congruent with the hypothesis previously advanced that in face-to-face interviews
English people will tend to give answers which they think will do them credit with
the interviewer. The high proportion of Nonconformists would seem to be explicable
by the inclusion of Wales and Scotland in the sample. A poll taken by the British
Institute of Public Opinion in January 1950 for the whole of Britain had the following
figures: Church of England, 51 per cent; Nonconformists, 15 per cent; Roman
Catholics, 11 per cent; Scottish Church, 8 per cent; 'other', 6 per cent; no denomina-
tion, 9 per cent.

2. Herewith a synoptic table of the percentages of the different denominations who
attend religious services more than once a week and weekly:

Percentage attending Percentage attending
Denomination more than once a week once a week

Roman Catholic 19 35

Spiritualists, etc. 18 20

Presbyterians 12 24

Anglican 21 12

Baptist 17 15

Congregationalist 16 16

Methodist 14 13

Small Protestant sects 18 11

'Christian* 4 10

Church of England 3 7

^Protestant' 4 5

Nonconformist 3 6

Jewish — 4

270

RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

The British Institute of Public Opinion asked a sample from the whole of Britain,
'What did you do last Sunday?' in September 1948 Fifteen per cent of those queried
went to church on that Sunday, 18 per cent of the women and 12 per cent of the men.
As far as denomination was concerned, members of the Church of England had
11 per cent church-goers; the Nonconformists 25 per cent; the Roman Catholics
27 per cent; and ihe 'others' 18 per cent. Apart from the high number of Noncon-
formists, who presumably include members of the Church of Scotland, the figures
appear very close to those given above.

3. The figures, discussed above, for non-attendance of church or religious services,
include the 25 per cent who do not place themselves in any denomination, as well as
some members of ail the denominations discussed. The following table gives a synoptic
view of the proportions of the membership of the different denominations who visit
places of worship only for weddings or funerals, or never The Anglicans and the Jews
are the only groups who have no members at ail in the 'never* category.

'Protestant'

Church of England

'Christian'

Small Protestant sects

Jewish

Presbyterian

Methodist

Baptist

Nonconformist

Congregationahst

Roman Catholic

Anglican

Spiritualist

41 per cent

The figures for church attendance given here can be usefully compared with those in
English Life and Leisure, by R. Seebohm Rowntree and G. R. Lavers (London: Long-
mans, 1951), Chapter XIII. Only two communities, York and High Wycombe, were
studied by these investigators, but the picture is very similar.

In the poll taken by Odhams Press, referred to in note 1, the church-going habits
of men and women were tabulated separately. The figures, which are considerably
higher than those from my anonymous questionnaires or Rowntree and Lavers' actual
count of people present, suggest that once again the tendency of interviewees to
present themselves in the most favourable light is operative; the actual figures are:

Visit church weekly
Every 2-3 weeks
4-8 weeks
Less frequently

Men (44 per cent}

1 1 per cent
6 „ „

12 „ „
15 „ „

Women (56 per cent)
18 per cent
10 „ „

16 „ „
12 „ „

This survey only distinguished three denominations, Church of England, Roman
Catholic, and Nonconformist; all other denominations were grouped as 'other*. The
figures for attendance by denomination are:

Visit church weekly
Every 2 or 3 weeks
4-8 weeks
Less often

C. ofE.
8

7
16
17

R.C.

52
9
9

Nonconformist

18
13

Other
33

6
11

These figures imply that 52 per cent of those calling themselves Church of England,
21 per cent of those calling themselves Roman Catholic, and 47 per cent of those
calling themselves Nonconformists are not church-goers.

271

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

4. See under p. 266.

5. The following is a synoptic table of the percentages of the members of the
different sects who say prayers daily or more frequently The highest proportion of
those saying prayers more frequently than once a day are the Spiritualists (32 per cent),
the Roman Catholics (28 per cent), the small Protestant sects (24 per cent), the 'Chris-
tians' (18 per cent), the Anglicans (17 per cent). Church of England has 9 per cent.

Spiritualists 75 per cent

Roman Catholics 67 „ „

Small Protestant sects 65

Anglicans 63

Congregationahsts 60

Baptists 53

'Christian' 51

'Protestant' 51

Methodist 49

Church of England 45

Nonconformists 44

Presbyterians 29

Jewish 20

Only the very small groups of Presbyterians and Jews have more than 10 per cent of
their members who 'never' say prayers, though every denomination has some non-
prayers, even the elective religions like Spiritualists Here follows a synoptic table of
those who claim membership of some denomination but say prayers 'very seldom' or
'never', given in percentages of membership of the denomination.

Presbyterian 64 per cent

Jewish 64 „ „

Nonconformist 49 „ „

Church of England 40 „ „

Methodist 39 „ „

'Christian' 35 „ „

Baptist 35 „ „

Anglican 31 „ „

'Protestant' 29

Congregationalists 28

Small Protestant sects 27

Roman Catholics 26

Spiritualists 1 7

In reading these tables it should be remembered that the numbers of Jews, Presby-
terians and Anglicans are very small, so that the answers of very few individuals
produce very high percentages.

In January 1950, the British Institute of Public Opinion asked a sample from the
whole of Britain: 'Apart from children, does anyone m your home pray regularly?*
and analysed the answers according to the denominations :

Denomination Yes No Don't know

Church of England 48 41 11

Nonconformists 43 38 14

Roman Catholics 68 24 8

'Other' 46 41 13

6. The pages which follow on the religious education of children are based on the
answers given by parents of living children only, as in Chapters Eleven and Twelve.

7. Fifty-seven per cent of members of the Church of England send or sent their
children to Sunday School. Sixty-nine per cent of the Methodists do so, and even

272

RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

greater percentages of the Baptists, Congregationalists, Nonconformists, and the
small Protestant sects. Only a third of the Roman Catholics and Anglicans send their
children, though this figure may be due to a very literal interpretation of the question.

8. Questions asked about children's attendance at church or religious services
either by themselves or in company of their parents were too ambiguously phrased
to be worth analysis.

9. The Nonconformists, the Presbyterians, the Baptists and the members of the
small Protestant sects are particularly zealous in teaching their children to pray ; but
this is an area where the differences between the denominations are relatively slight.
There is only a difference of 5 per cent between the Roman Catholics (67 per cent)
and the members of the Church of England (62 per cent).

10. The denominations with the greatest proportion of parents teaching their
children to say morning prayers are the Roman Catholics, Anglicans, small Protestant
sects and Nonconformists; but because of the size of its congregation the greatest
numbers would be found in the Church of England, 8 per cent of whose members
teach their children to say morning prayers (Roman Catholic 32 per cent)

11. Members of the small Protestant sects, the Congregationahsts, the Anglicans,
the 'Christians', and to a lesser extent the Baptists and Methodists, teach grace before
meals rather than after. The 'Protestants', the Nonconformists, and to a certain extent
the members of the Church of England, tend to favour grace after meals. Propor-
tionately, Roman Catholics, Jews, small Protestant sects, Presbyterians and Congre-
gationahsts have the largest number of their members teaching the saying of grace
(between 40 and 30 per cent); m the Church of England 16 per cent of the parents
teach grace before, 19 per cent after, meals.

12. St. Matthew: Chapters IV, 1, 11 ; IX, 32; XV, 22; XVII, 18; XXV, 41. St. Mark:
Chapters V, 15; VII, 29. St. Luke: Chapters IV, 2 and 23; VIII, 12 and 29; XI, 14.
St. John: Chapters VI, 70; VII, 20; VIII, 44; XIII, 2. References to Satan occur in
St. Matthew, IV, 10; XII, 26; XVI, 23. St. Mark, IV, 15; St. Luke, X, 18; XIII, 16;
XXI!, 22, 23, 31; St. John, XII, 31; XIII, 27; XIV, 30; XVI, 11.

13. As far as the members of the different denominations are concerned, belief in
hell and belief m the devil parallel one another very closely, belief m the devil having
some 2 per cent more in each case. In the case of three sects only (the Anglicans, the
Baptists, and the small Protestant sects) there is slightly more uncertainty about hell
than there is about the devil; in the case of the Spiritualists this is reversed.

The following is a synoptic table of belief, uncertainty, or disbelief in Hell, according
to denomination:

Percentage:

Disbelieve
31
50
59
60
80
55
61
36
66
25
65
53
83

Percentage:

Denomination

Believe

Uncertain

Anglican

Methodist

Church of England

'Christian'

Jewish

—

Nonconformist

'Protestant'

Baptist

Congregationalist

Roman Catholic

Presbyterian

Small Protestant sects

Spiritualists

There were 1 or 2 per cent non-answerers for most denominations.

273

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

14. Herewith a synoptic table of the percentages of each denomination believing in,
uncertain about, or not believing in, an after-life:

Percentage:

Denomination Believe Uncertain Disbelieve

Spiritualists 90 6 1

Anglicans 70 17 10

Baptists 71 17 11

Congregationalists 68 18 13

Presbyterians 65 11 24

Small Protestant sects 62 27 9

Roman Catholic 62 22 14

'Christian' 59 26 14

Methodists 55 29 13

Nonconformists 53 35 10

'Protestant' 49 27 21

Church of England 46 33 20

Jewish 32 28 40

In most denominations there were 1 or 2 per cent who did not answer,

In December 1947, the British Institute of Public Opinion asked a sample from the
whole of Britain: 'Do you believe in a life after death7' Forty-nine per cent replied
'Yes'; 33 per cent 'No'; and 18 per cent had no opinion The beliefs of the sexes
contrast quite markedly: 43 per cent of the men and 55 per cent of the women ex-
pressed belief in a life after death; 38 per cent of the men and 28 per cent of the women
did not believe m an after-life.

15. The following synoptic table gives the percentages of the members of the
different denominations who either wrote that they 'don't know' or 'have no idea' about
the nature of the after-life, or just left the question unanswered. This table should be
compared with those in footnotes in the following pages of the members of each de-
nomination subscribing to the various beliefs in the after-life. It should be recalled that
only 75 per cent of the population considers itself a member of a denomination; quite
a number of the believers in an after-life are consequently excluded from these
tabulations:

Percentage writing

Denomination Dorft know No idea No answer

Jewish 40 8 28

Church of England 35 5 20

Nonconformists 30 3 18

'Christian' 29 6 13

Presbyterian 28 12 6

'Protestant' 27 8 20

Roman Catholic 27 5 13

Methodists 24 4 20

Small Proiestant sects 24 3 14

Baptists 19 6 10

Congregationalists 17 5 15

Anglican 8 6 21
Spiritualists 423

16. The two verses most frequently quoted were: 'In my Father's House are many
mansions'; and 'Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither doth it enter into the heart
of man the things God hath prepared for those who love him.'

17. The following is a synoptic table of the percentages of the members of different
denominations, who profess belief in Heaven and Hell, in Heaven only, and who reject
the conventional descriptions:

274

RELIGION AND OTHER BELIEFS

Percentage believing in:

Denomination

Heaven and Hell

Heaven only

Not conventional

Heaven

Roman Catholic

Anglican

Small Protestant sects

Baptists

Congregationalists

Spiritualists

Methodists

'Protestant*

'Christian'

Church of England

Jewish

Nonconformist

Presbyterian

—

18. The following is a synoptic table of the percentages of members of different
denominations envisaging a future life of positive pleasant features or without negative
unpleasant features:

Percentage •

Posi five features Negative features

Denomination present absent

Presbyterian 18 6

'Christian' 14 9

Congregationalists 1 3 6

Roman Catholics 12 5

Spiritualists 11 13

SIP all Protestant sects 9 3

Nonconformists 8 1 1

Baptists 8 10

Jewish 8 4

Church of England 7 4

Methodists 7 7

'Protestant' 6 5

Anglicans 4 12

19. Twenty-five per cent of the Spiritualists envisage rejoining their loved ones; all
the other denominations have between 6 and 8 per cent of their members believing
this, except the Church of England (5 per cent) and the 'Christians', 'Protestants',
Methodists and Jews who have 3 or 4 per cent

Eleven per cent of the Baptists envisage 'watching over* their loved ones; the Con-
gregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists and Anglicans have 6 or 7 per cent; all the
remaining denominations have 3 or 4 per cent, save the Roman Catholics, with 2 per
cent, and the Jews, none of whom hold this belief.

20. Herewith a synoptic table of the percentage of members of the different de-
nominations holding this belief:

Percentage believing in:

Denomination Like this life Reincarnation Other planet

Spiritualists 25 2 9

Anglicans 822

Baptists 7 4 1

Congregationalists 733

Small Protestant sects 74 —

Nonconformists 65 —

Roman Catholics 6 2 1

275

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Percentage believing in •

Denomination Like this life Reincarnation Other planet

Presbyterians 61 —

Church of England 5 6 1

Methodists 4 6 1

Jewish 4 — —

'Christian' 36 —

'Protestant' 3 5 1

21. The British Institute of Public Opinion in December 1947 asked the 49 per cent
of their respondents who said they believed m a life after death (see note 14): 'What
will it be like?' Thirteen per cent said they did not know, and 2 per cent of the answers
were treated as ^miscellaneous' ; the ideas of the remainder were :

Spiritual form — spirit does not die 19 per cent

Heaven and hell according to life on earth 4 ,,

Reincarnation 3 „

Paradise 3 „

Higher plane 2 „

Similar to life on earth 2 „

Same as now 1 ,, ,,

22. The number of people claiming to have seen or heard a ghost are so few that
their distribution among the different denominations can only be suggestive. No
Presbyterians claim this experience nor do any Nonconformists ; and very few of the
Methodists, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, or Jews. Apart from the Spiritualists, the
highest proportions are found among the 'Christians', 'Protestants', Church of England
and Baptists. A considerable proportion of those seeing or hearing ghosts are not
members of any denomination.

In April 1950 the British Institute of Public Opinion asked a sample from the whole
of Britain: 'Do you believe in ghosts7' Eight per cent of the men and 12 per cent of
the women replied in the affirmative; 84 per cent of the men and 75 per cent of the
women in the negative; the remainder said they did not know. Two per cent of the
men and 3 per cent of the women said they had seen a ghost.

23. In the field survey, the percentage holding lucky mascots is slightly lower,
12 per cent; and m this sample there is much less difference between the sexes. The
poor, the young (under 24), the upper middle and the lower working classes are the
greatest holders of mascots, with the lower middle class again having the lowest
percentage. The main difference between the replies of this group and the mam sample
— apart from sex — is in the regions ; the two Northern regions have far fewer mascot-
holders than the rest of the country.

24. In the field survey there is the same proportion (9 per cent) believing in lucky
days and, rather surprisingly, a rather higher percentage (7 per cent) believing in
unlucky days. The sexes are evenly divided. There is the same marked regional contrast
as was found in the case of mascots (see note 23); otherwise the distribution is very
similar.

25. In the field survey the total numbers consulting fortune-tellers were quite con-
siderably less — 28 per cent in all, 14 per cent men and 40 per cent women. The distri-
bution is very similar to that of the mam sample.

26. The distribution of visits is very similar in the field sample to the main sample.
The following are the proportions of each sex visiting a fortune-teller once, twice, or
more frequently ; the proportions for the main sample are in brackets and italics :

Percentage of men Percentage of women
Visit once 70 (64} 45 (35}

Visit twice 13 (19} 23 (26)

More frequently 14 (77) 28 (38)

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27. The distribution of belief is very similar in the field survey. The figures give the
percentages of those consulting fortune tellers who report the different results to the
question 'Did any of it come true?'; percentages from the mam survey m brackets
and italics:

Yes: 29 (30); Yes, all of it: 3 (2); Yes, some of it: 14 (/5); No, nothing: 43 (35);
Don't know: 11 (II); 1 per cent of the mam sample, but none of the field sample,
left the question unanswered.

28. In the field survey, 2 per cent of the men and 3 per cent of the women claimed
the ability to tell fortunes; but they were very unwilling to tell the lady interviewers
what techniques they used

In March 1951 the British Institute of Public Opinion asked: 'Do you believe in
telling the future by . . . ?' various techniques. Eighty per cent of the population
(88 per cent of the men and 70 per cent of the women) expressed no belief m any of
the techniques named; but 'horoscopes' were not, it appears, included as such. Four
per cent of the men and 1 1 per cent of the women thought the future could be foretold
by cards; 2 per cent of the men and 12 per cent of the women by palmistry; 4 percent
of the men and 10 per cent of the women by stars; 1 per cent of the men and 1 1 per
cent of the women by tea-leaves; and 3 per cent of the women by phrenology Other
(unidentified) techniques were named by 2 per cent of the men and 3 per cent of the
women.

29. The figures from the field survey are strictly comparable. Interviewees were
asked *Do you read the horoscope in a newspaper or magazine?' without any astro-
loger being named Since men and women differ quite markedly in this practice the
percentages will be given by sexes. In brackets and italics are the percentages of the
main sample reading horoscopes in 'any other paper or magazine' :

Percentage of men Percentage of women
Read regularly 30 (25) 53 (48)

Read occasionally 30 (49) 28 (39)

Never read 40 (23) 19 (9)

No answer — (2) 0 (4)

Except for an odd concentration of 'regular' readers in the Midlands, the figures of
distribution for the field survey and main sample are very similar.

30. There is slightly less credulity, but considerably more refusal to answer, from
the field survey. As previously, the answers are given by the sex of the respondents to
the question 'Do you think there is something in horoscopes?', the answers from the
main survey being in brackets and italics:

Percentage of men Percentage of women
Yes 12 (15) 21 (27)

Uncertain 13 (29) 16 (37)

No 63 (53) 58 (33}

No answer 12 (2) 5 (3)

31. The figures from the field survey are not quite comparable because they are
only derived from that portion of the interviewed sample who said that they read
horoscopes, 71 per cent of the total. For an exact comparison, the field survey per-
centages could be reduced by seven-tenths; but the pattern is very simitar. The figures
for the main sample, in brackets and italics, refer to the percentages of the total
population, whether they read horoscopes or not. The question was 'Do you follow
advice in the horoscope columns you read ?'

Percentage of men Percentage of women
Regularly 3 (2) 5 (4)

Occasionally 15 (16) 20 (29)

Never 78 (76) 74 (63)

No answer 4 (6) 1 (4}

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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

TO SEE OURSELVES

WHEN ENGLISH PEOPLE sit in judgment on their own characters over
half name bad temper as a major defect, and over three-quarters
consider that their chief quality is consideration for others. Both
these terms cover a number of near synonyms: bad temper, for
example, includes nagging, taking oifence quickly, enjoying rows,
surliness and similar traits; consideration for others includes under-
standing, sympathy, seeing the other fellow's point of view, tolerance
(a word much favoured by the working class with a general connota-
tion of permissiveness, but without political or ethnic overtones),
friendliness and so on. I think an impartial observer would consider
that these self-ascriptions are justified; and they can hardly have come
as a surprise to the readers of the foregoing chapters.

Fairly early in the questionnaire I placed the questions 'What do
you consider your three best qualities?' and 'What do you consider
your three worst faults?' chiefly because I thought people would
enjoy answering them, and would go on to the rest of the question-
naire with greater zest. I think the questions were enjoyed, they were
certainly answered with fullness and frankness. It is an interesting
side-light on English character that, although 6 per cent of the
population did not answer the question about their good qualities,
only 3 per cent were silent about their faults. The old (over 65) and
the poor were the most likely to leave both questions unanswered;
young women were particularly diffident about naming their good
qualities.

People were astoundingly frank in their confession of faults.
Respondents accused themselves of bigamy, stealing, receiving
stolen goods, lying and technical perjury, homosexuality, fetishism,
sadism, masturbation1 (in a considerable number of cases), domestic
cruelty or callousness, and even, in one case, 'at times a feeling to
hurt some animal (then repentance)'. Obviously every effort was
made by nearly all respondents to be as truthful and co-operative
as possible.

The difficulty about dealing with these answers was a mechanical
one. There is a fairly easily reached technical limit to the number of
categories which can go on to an I.B.M. card, or which the girl
'editors' can carry in their heads when marking the questionnaires
before the cards are punched. My respondents gave such an enor-

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mous list of qualities and faults — especially faults— that some overall
categories had to be devised. Unfortunately I did not perform this
job very well; I have a number of categories which include too few
respondents, and a few which include too many.

The categories with very few respondents can be dealt with very
summarily. Less than 1 per cent of the population pride themselves
on their ambition or on their Christian principles or religious devout-
ness; only 3 per cent define their virtues negatively (that they don't
sulk, are not jealous, are unaffected and so on); only 4 per cent claim
their financial integrity or economy as a good quality. As far as
faults are concerned only 1 per cent accuse themselves of cowardice,
of financial meanness or inadequacy (as will be seen, quite a number
accuse themselves of extravagance)5 or of gluttony. A similar small
group, with what seems to me admirable clear-sightedness, lists
prejudice against Americans, coloured people, Jews or foreigners
as faults. Three per cent accuse themselves of drinking too much; the
same number accuse themselves of sexual faults (unfaithfulness,
over-preoccupation with sex, as well as perversions); and a further
3 per cent reproach themselves for not loving or appreciating their
spouses, parents or children sufficiently.

About a third of the good qualities claimed are lumped together
under two rather vague over-all labels : Qualities of Character, by
which I intended to signify 'innate' or 'natural' characteristics such
as tidiness, good memory, good physique, industriousness, punc-
tuality, and similar desirable traits; and Moral Qualities, by which
I intended to signify what the religious call virtues — straightforward-
ness, simplicity, loyalty, truthfulness, reliability, conscientiousness
and the like. Nearly everybody lays claim to possessing one or
another of the traits subsumed under these two rubrics, and few
claim more than one; but the categories are so wide that little can
be deduced from their distribution.

The remaining good qualities are sufficiently concrete. Twenty-
two per cent of the population pride themselves on their good temper,
their sportsmanship and similar phrases. Fourteen per cent mention
their optimism, the fact that they are always cheerful, always look
on the bright side of things. Thirteen per cent, overwhelmingly the
young from the poorer families, mention quite concrete skills, being
a good cook, a good dancer, a good athlete etc. Eleven per cent
mention their love of their own family, parents, spouse or children,
or just generally 'home life'; 8 per cent name love of the weak,
typically children, animals and old people in that order, though
sometimes one or another may be omitted; and 6 per cent

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mention their financial integrity— their honesty, thrift, economy and
so on.

The picture which the English draw of their own good qualities
is remarkably consistent through the different categories of region,
town size, age, income and social class. The single lay considerably
more claim to optimism than the married (20 per cent and 12 per cent
respectively) ; the married, on the other hand, emphasize their love
for their own family much more than the single (14 per cent against
3 per cent). The greatest consistent difference is between the views
of men and women on their own character, and these differences are
in quantity, rather than rank order. The following table lists the
percentage of men and women claiming the different good qualities;
since three qualities were asked for the base line would be 300 per
cent; but I have omitted from this tabulation those qualities which
are claimed by less than 5 per cent of the total population, and also
those who didn't answer.

Percentage Percentage

Quality of men of women

Consideration for others, understanding 73 80

Moral qualities 59 47

Qualities of character 55 42

Good temper, sportsmanship 25 20

Optimism H 18

Concrete skills 10 15

Love of own family 10 12

Love of the weak 6 10

Financial integrity 6 4

The blanket categories used to describe faults are not quite so
unsatisfactory as those used to lump together good qualities, for
they do seem to me to be idiosyncratic and revealing. There does
seem to be an English tendency to describe one's faults indirectly
by reference to good or desirable traits, to say that one has either
not enough of, or too much of, a quality which would be desirable
if it were present in the optimum which is by implication less than
the maximum. Thus, people blame themselves for being too self-
confident or not self-confident enough ('inferiority complex'); too
independent and not strong willed; too meek and not forgiving; too
trusting and not trusting enough; too tidy and too untidy; and so on
through a considerable number of reciprocals. I am inclined to
think that this concept of good qualities having an optimum, and
turning into faults if there is present either too little or too much is
specifically English; it is congruent with the high value given to
moderation in other contexts.

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The negative definition, what I have dubbed the Absence of Good
Traits, is much the more common, being favoured by nearly half
the population ; the Excess of Good Traits is used by about half that
number. Not all the qualities listed as 'too little' or 'too much' have
reciprocals; people reproach themselves for not being observant
enough, having no sense of humour, no concentration, no ability
to plan, neglecting religion, or, on the other hand, with being too
idealistic, too dogmatic, too sensitive, too frank, without these
qualities appearing on more than one of the lists. But, it would
seem, it is only the exceptional trait which can be overdone in only
one direction.

There are two other blanket terms which apply in both cases to
nearly a quarter of the population. I used 'social faults' for all the
habits which tend to make other people dislike one — argumentative-
ness, snobbishness, rudeness, abruptness, sarcasm; and 'moral
faults' for a straightforward naming of qualities generally condemned
on religious or ethical grounds — vanity, pride, deceitfulness,
revengefulness, suspicion, selfishness, lying, stealing and so forth.

The remaining faults are more specific. Nearly a fifth of the popula-
tion blame themselves for procrastination, putting things off, dilly-
dallying. Thirteen per cent blame themselves for shyness or one of
its numerous synonyms, a phrase frequently used being 'backward
in coming forward' ; and the same number reproach themselves for
financial extravagance, either as over-spending, or as being unable
to save, or as gambling. A tenth of the population accuse themselves
of what I have called 'compulsive traits', borrowing a phrase from
clinical psychiatry; these are the people who consider themselves
too exact, too thorough, too methodical, always worrying or
fidgeting, too conscientious or over-cautious, excessively methodical.
Half this number describe themselves as depressed or moody; with
the 3 per cent who are nail-biters this gives nearly a fifth of the
population who ascribe to themselves symptoms which a psychia-
trist would unhesitatingly consider neurotic, a remarkably high
proportion one would imagine. The remaining faults all have between
8 and 5 per cent of the population listing them. Smoking is the only
one of the physical self-indulgences in this list. Domineering, with
its synonyms of bossiness, always wanting one's own way, taking
advantage of others; obstinacy (stubbornness, pigheadedness); and
sluggishness (sloth, late rising, being too fond of bed) complete the
dismal list.

With the faults, as with the qualities, the most marked differences
lie between men and women, though the other distributions are

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

slightly less even than in the case of good qualities. The following
list shows the percentages of men and women admitting to the
different types of faults, except for those with very small numbers.

Percentage Percentage

Fault of men of women

Bad temper 45 60

Absence of good traits 50 42

Excess of good traits 19 31

Social faults 28 19

Moral faults 20 18

Procrastination 17 18

Shyness 15 10

Financial extravagance 14 11

Compulsive traits 8 15

Domineering 5 8

Smoking 10 4

Obstinacy 6 8

Sluggishness 6 7

Depression 4 6

Nail-biting 3 2

As can be seen English men present themselves as lacking in good
traits, as being socially 'awkward' and shy much more than women,
and also as smoking too much; English women stress their bad
temper (nagging), their excess of good traits, and their compulsive-
ness much more than do men. Marriage seems to increase the
feminine faults of bad temper (an increase of 11 per cent) and
compulsiveness (an increase of 5 per cent); the unmarried are more
conscious of their moral faults (an increase of 8 per cent) and of
their shyness (an increase of 5 per cent).

The compulsive traits increase not only with marriage but with
age; they are rare under 24, and then mount slowly as the people
get older. There is a slight decrease as income rises. They are markedly
characteristics of the middle and lower middle classes. Nail-biting is
chiefly a trait of the young; and depression or moodiness is very
evenly distributed. Nearly a quarter of the women in the sample,
especially from the middle and lower middle classes, blame themselves
for having traits which most people would consider neurotic symp-
toms ; barely a seventh of the men are in a similar case.2

Some of the faults seem to be, as it were, the specialities of
different age grades or special classes. Only in one instance is there
a marked regional difference; a considerable number of people in
the North-West reproach themselves for procrastination, which is
not a marked failing in either the North-East and North or the
South-West.

Moral faults are particularly named by the young, under 24, by

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members of the upper middle class, and by people with a family
income of £12-£15; it seems possible that this is a semantic point,
and that the students, who must comprise most of these groups, use
the precise and positive terms, whereas most of the population
use periphrases. The upper middle class rate themselves highly for
procrastination, but low for sluggishness or shyness.

The lower middle class emphasize their absence of good traits,
but name few moral faults; the upper working class their excess of
good traits and their bad temper; the working class, compared with
the middle class, stress their absence of good traits and their sluggish-
ness ; the lower working class stress their excess of good traits, and
do not reproach themselves for sluggishness.

The very young, under 18, stress their shyness, their procrastina-
tion and their sluggishness; few of them mention their temper or
their extravagance. The elderly, over 65, do not think they are shy
or procrastinating, but otherwise they present much the same picture
of themselves as do their potential grandchildren. The middle aged,
between 45 and 64, stress most heavily their excess of good traits,
and make little mention of their moral faults; they also do not
consider themselves procrastinators.

If one takes the ecclesiastical category of the seven deadly sins,
and applies them to these self-evaluations, an interesting and reveal-
ing pattern emerges. Practically none of the English accuse themselves
of gluttony; and if one thinks of the typical English cooking and
English attitude to food, this seems in accordance with facts. The
self-reproaches about excessive drinking or smoking seem to be
based on financial grounds, or the bad effect of drink on character
('I drink because I get lonely — and become detestable when I've
had too much'; or 'Disagreable when one over the 8'), rather than
on excessive self-indulgence; but even if these are reckoned with
gluttony, it only touches a tenth of the population.

Similarly, avarice is not a vice with which English people reproach
themselves, and again one would think with reason. Apart from
pathological misers, avarice would seem to be the besetting sin of
some peasant populations (traditionally the French and German
peasants are given to hoarding) rather than of predominantly urban
populations such as the English. Extravagance might perhaps be
considered the opposite face of avarice, treating money and its
potentialities in an irrational and irresponsible fashion, and this
fault does bulk relatively more importantly ; perhaps one-seventh of
the population could be accused of avarice or its converse.

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Only 3 per cent admit to lust, in any form ; and this seems congruent
with most of the material in the previous chapters, where ignorance
of, or distaste for, sex seems a greater hazard to individual and
marital happiness, rather than an excessive preoccupation with this
activity.

Unfortunately, I did not give pride a separate rubric; it makes
up quite a considerable portion of the 'moral faults' with which a
fifth of the population reproach themselves, but by no means the
total; if one takes the various accusations of snobbishness, on the
one hand, and of undesirable behaviour by neighbours on the other
as further evidence, one might conclude that pride is a major sin
of between a fifth and a sixth of the English, pride chiefly shown in
the context of social class.

The two deadly sins of which sizable proportions of the English
population are conscious and with which they reproach themselves
are sloth and anger. Counting both procrastination and sluggishness
as aspects of sloth, a quarter of the population acknowledge this
failing; and it would probably be agreed to by most of the people
who in recent years have been comparing the working habits of
the Englishman with his American, German or Japanese opposite
number.

Anger, chiefly in its manifestations of nagging, bad temper and
surliness, is a self-reproach of over half the English population;
if one were to add domineering and obstinacy as at least in part
manifestations of anger, the total figure would rise to two-thirds.
It remains to be discussed whether there is in fact a great deal of
anger among the English, or whether there is so much self-conscious-
ness about the expression of anger, that even minor outbursts are
noted with self-condemnation.

What is remarkable in this list is that the sin of envy is completely
excluded. This is not due to the employment of faulty categories,
for I started with the presumption that envy was a major characteristic
of many English people, and I was constantly alert to any reference
to this; but there were only a couple of respondents in the whole
11,000 who put their envy into words, both of them young men:
'Envious of richer people than myself'; 'Jealousness of other people
with money and good luck'. The conclusion seems inescapable that
either the envy is not recognized, that it is unconscious, or that it
is not regarded as a sin or fault. I do not think that it could be
denied that in the political appeals and actions of the last decade
envy has played a major role; that in the policy of 'fair shares for all'
the desire to see that nobody has more has been at least as important

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as seeing that nobody has less. Perhaps envy has received so much
justification that it is no longer felt to be a sin, but is regarded as an
aspect of a desire for justice. A possible parallel could be found with
contemporary American urban youth, for the majority of whom, I
would suspect, lust is no longer a sin, but rather a manifestation
of 'psychological health' and 'good adjustment'. If this be the case,
the remarkable self-knowledge, self-criticism and honesty of the
English, which I think this study has demonstrated, has a blind spot.

The canonical virtues of the English are less easily determined
by my material. Faith, as we have seen is low, except for a minority
— perhaps a sixth of the population. More people consider themselves
optimists than consider themselves depressed or moody, but the
numbers in both cases are small, and I doubt whether hope should
be considered an English characteristic. But three-quarters of the
population consider themselves understanding, considerate of others,
what Mr Knightley called 'English delicacy towards the feelings of
other people', and this, I think, can be considered a good part of
Charity; and the very widespread acceptance of the principles of the
'welfare state', however much grumbling there may be about the
means involved in achieving it, bears out the same contention on a
more material level.

Of the cardinal virtues, the English are certainly temperate, though
this would appear to be to a very considerable extent a development
of the last thirty years or so. In the limited meaning of temperance
one cannot escape the suspicion that the very high imposts on
alcoholic drinks have had a greater influence on national sobriety
than a change in the national character. In the more general meaning
of the term, I rather feel that the great moderation in the indulgence
of fleshly pleasures (which is certainly documented) comes less from
the conscious control of strong appetites than from the appetites
being (at least on the conscious level) extremely moderate.

Prudence ? I very much doubt if it is now a national virtue. Some
10 per cent of the population pride themselves on their financial
integrity, on their economy and freedom from debt; it is a some-
what smaller group than those who reproach themselves for their
extravagance. In the nineteenth century, it would appear, prudence
was the great characteristic of the English middle class, and the
basis for Britain's spectacular economic development. In that
century, and for those classes, living on capital was almost the greatest
sin in the calendar; today it is a principle of national policy.

The history of the last 15 years shows beyond cavil that fortitude
is a characteristic of the great majority of the English; but I should

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

be very hard put to demonstrate this from my material. An occasional
comment about the representativeness of the police, a very rare
self-description ('Will assist anyone in a fight if they are outnumbered
and losing very badly. This is done on the spur of the moment not
premeditated. If I see anyone badly hurt I take his part without
stopping to think why I'm doing it' : a 23-year-old bachelor from
Gillingham) would be all the evidence I could muster. The English
are as silent about their courage and endurance as they are about
envy, and I think for very similar reasons; just as they do not
appear to count envy a sin, so they do not appear to count fortitude
a virtue. Modesty may play some part in this reticence, but I do not
think it is great; rather, I suspect, it is considered by most a national
characteristic, in which individuals vary very little; when they are
describing their own qualities (or defects) they do not mention the
courage in which they think they do not differ from their compatriots.
The virtue most consciously and continuously manifested by the
English is, I would say, undoubtedly justice. I think there is a lot of
inferential evidence for this — the consensus of attitudes towards the
police, the attitudes towards premarital sexuality, even many of
the unconventional beliefs about the after-life carry the same
underlying value.

What psychological hypotheses can unify these apparently con-
tradictory traits, customs and attitudes which the previous chapters
have documented? In this exploration of English character we have
charted some of the features in this strange, yet familiar, country;
now it remains to try to bring them together into the equivalent of
a map.

I would make the assumption that fundamentally English character
has changed very little in the last 150 years, and possibly longer;
that the Roaring Boys and the Boys' Brigade, the ardent bull-baiters
and the ardent anti-vivisectionists, the romantically criminal mobs
and the prosaically law-abiding queues are made up of people of
the same basic type of character. Underlying the enormous super-
ficial changes, I believe that there is a basic historical continuity.

The superficial changes are enormous, of that there is no doubt.
One of the most lawless populations in the world has turned into
one of the most law-abiding; a society which uninhibitedly enjoyed
public floggings and public executions, dog-fights and animal baiting
has turned into an excessively humanitarian, even squeamish, society;
a fiercely and ruthlessly acquisitive society has turned into a mildly
distributive society; general corruption in government has been

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replaced by an extraordinarily high level of honesty. What seems
to have remained constant is a great resentment at being overlooked
or controlled, a love of freedom; fortitude; a low interest in sexual
activity, compared with most of the neighbouring societies; a strong
belief in the value of education for the formation of character;
consideration and delicacy for the feelings of other people; and a
very strong attachment to marriage and the institution of the
family.

The reversals can, I think, all be accounted for on one principle.
Up till a century ago the English were openly aggressive (John Bull,
in fact) and took pleasure and pride in their truculence, their readi-
ness to fight and to endure, and, by a simple process of partial
identification, in 'game' animals which would fight, in 'game'
criminals who finished a slashing career fittingly on the public gallows,
and in the comical spectacles afforded by the physical mishaps and
pains of others. There was little or no guilt about the expression
of aggression in the appropriate situations; and there was no doubt,
except in odd and rather comical cases, that every English man and
woman had sufficient aggression for every possible event; there
was always more potential strength than could be used, unless one
had 'one's back to the wall'.

Today, unless 'one's back is to the wall*, almost any overt expres-
sion of aggression is fused with guilt. Nearly all the amusements of
our fore-fathers would provoke the greatest indignation; all visible
suffering which cannot be avoided must be hidden; any form of
childish aggressive behaviour is watched for and punished; and when
we think of our faults we put first, and by a long way, any lapses
from our standards of non-aggression, bad temper, nagging, swearing
and the like. Public life is more gentle than that reported for any
other society of comparable size and industrial complexity.

But I do not think the aggression has disappeared, nor even much
diminished in potentiality. It is very severely controlled, so that it
rarely appears in overt or public behaviour. It sometimes breaks out
pathologically in the methodical murders, the excessive cruelty to
children or animals, accounts of which, when prosecuted and
punished, form, significantly enough, the favourite Sunday reading
of about half the English population.

An analogy which I think may be suggestive can be provided by
the front door of a house. Inside the house, which is the analogue
of the unconscious, is a very strong and potentially destructive force,
pushing against the door through which, if it could emerge, it would
wreak its will and seek its pleasure. But it can never, or hardly ever,

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

emerge, for a man, the analogue of the conscience or super-ego,
is holding the door closed, but using nearly all his available strength
to do so. The contest is nearly life-long, for the force retains its
potential strength, the man (or woman) his resolution with little
alteration from childhood to old age.

If this analogy be valid, it would account for a great number of
the traits and attitudes which have been described in this study. If
nearly all the 'human' strength is involved in keeping the forces of
aggression under control, there is relatively little energy left for other
pursuits. This might account for the slowness which so many
respondents think typically English, the sloth — the procrastination
or laziness — for which a considerable number reproach themselves,
the 'nervous fatigue' or 'night starvation' or any of the other
synonyms for a feeling of inadequate energy which the manufacturers
of patent foods and medicines exploit so assiduously in England. I
know no statistical analyses which have been made either of the
extent of advertisements for patent medicines and 'medical' foods
and drinks, or of the conditions they claim to cure or ameliorate in
the different Occidental countries ; but I have a firm impression that
the claims to restore depleted energy are much more general in
England than in any society of Western Europe or North America.

By the same token, relatively very few advertisements carry
explicit aphrodisiac promises, to increase sexual potentiality or
Restore lost virility*; nor do they enhance their appeal by associating
their products with pictures of sexually attracted couples.3 Even in
the hopeful minds of advertisers, the English are not unduly * worried'
about sex or sexual adequacy.

It seems reasonable to assume that every human being is born
with a certain potential of undifferentiated unconscious energy,
perhaps varying with the individual genetic constitution. After birth
this energy gets channelized into both constructive and destructive
directions. If this be the case, the more energy is channelized into
potential aggression, the less remains for potential sexuality. More-
over it seems likely that the habits of rigid self-control, which we
have postulated in the case of aggression, would be likely to generalize
to all forms of self-expression. It was only a small group, chiefly
composed of tormented adolescents or the members of rigid sects,
who reproached themselves for their excessive sexual feelings or
behaviour; as has been shown, too little interest in sex is the major
peril to contemporary English marriages.

It would seem that this diminution in the interest in sexual activity
occurred during much the same period as the increased control in

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the expression of aggression. According to Dr Michael Sadleir4 the
underworld of mid- Victorian London seethed with every sort of
sexual activity. The copious pornographic literature of the period,
and the contemporary reputation of the English in Paris and other
European capitals suggest that for many people sexuality became
mingled with aggression and that the two impulses found clandestine
relief simultaneously. In the succeeding generations both impulses
came under the same strict control.

Fear of one's own impulses could most probably be a component
of shyness. Shyness is a type of fear; and the fear (unrealistic, in
most cases) is either of what one will do to the stranger, or what the
stranger will do to one.5 But what basis can there be to these fears ?
In actual experience, strangers may be tongue-tied but are seldom
wounding. If however we unconsciously project on to others the
wounding intentions we might have if we did not keep ourselves
under very strict control, then there would be an explanation, though
not on a conscious level a reason, for the excessive shyness which
most English people think they feel.

Similar feelings might well be a component of the marked English
appreciation of privacy. It seems likely that the major component
of this desire not to be over-looked derives from the widespread use
of deprivation as a childhood punishment : one's normal enjoyments
and relaxations become dependent on the absence of supervision
which is always likely to be censorious. The old joke 'See what
Johnny is doing and tell him to stop it' is very near quite a lot of
parental discipline; and when Johnny or Janie grow up one of their
desires for a pleasant life is that nobody shall be able to see what
they're doing, for fear they shall be told to stop it, or otherwise
blamed, criticized and interfered with. It seems improbable also
that such interference with childish pleasures provokes no resent-
ment from the children thus checked, even though they may not
manifest it, or even feel it consciously; in later life the possibly cen-
sorious overlooker might also arouse the disapproved-of feelings
of aggression, and so becomes a threat to one's self-control, as well
as being a possible source of deprivation. One of the most marked
contrasts in West Africa between the stations for Europeans in the
French and British colonies is that in the former half-a-dozen
buildings will be arranged to look like a portion of a provincial town,
whereas in the latter each house is carefully sited so as to be invisible
from any of the others.

The picture is then of potentially strong aggression under very
strong control, together involving most of the will-power and most

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of the unconscious energy of the greater number of English men and
women. But though the energy is so watchfully controlled, it is not
entirely dissipated ; it finds outlets in a number of different ways,
many of them symbolic. I have already referred to the marked
preoccupation with the prevention of cruelty.

One of the outlets is humour. A careful analysis of the most
popular B.B.C. radio and television comedy and variety programmes
will show to what a remarkable extent humour for mass English
audiences is based on insult and humiliation either from one character
to another or even to the self. Real or supposed physical defects or
weaknesses — age, baldness, fatness, impediments in speech, even
skin-colour — or conceit (say, about a singing voice or ability to
play the fiddle) are the continuous small coin of these comedy shows,
and apparently always good for a laugh, certainly with the studio
audiences, and, one must presume, with the mass of listeners and
viewers. The situation is defined as humorous, and therefore harm-
less; if most of these remarks were made in a different context they
would be deeply hurtful and humiliating and might well lead to
quarrels and blows. In context, they serve as a safety-valve.

Some of the comedians specialize in insulting themselves either
by direct self-depreciation or by ludicrous boasting. This humorous
self-depreciation is a fairly common English characteristic and one
which is almost always misunderstood by the non-English; when the
self-depreciation is more evident than the humour it is often called
'typical English understatement.' This, it would seem, is in part a
protective device; boasting in the young is liable to be punished, to
call forth the righteous aggression of elders and betters, and this can
be averted by claiming less than one's due. But I do not think that by
any means all such modesty is mock-modesty; it would seem to have
in it an element of self-criticism, of self-punishment, possibly for
not reaching even higher standards.

In social life speech is the chief medium by which disapproved-
of aggression slips past the watchful guard. Oneof themost constantly
recurring themes in the material which has been analysed in the
previous chapters is the dislike and fear of hurtful speech. Nagging,
gossip (which is presumably always malicious), sarcasm, teasing,
most forms of 'bad temper', surliness and swearing (which is the
nearest equivalent to physical aggression) make up the greater
number of traits which people dislike in their neighbours, dread in
their husbands or wives, think go to wreck marriages, try to avoid
in their children and see as blemishes in their own character.
Grumbling was less mentioned by my respondents; it can perhaps

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be considered the verbal counterpart of envy, and, like envy, justified
and free from guilt; few observers, I think, would question that
grumbling is not infrequent in the contemporary English scene.

Another outlet for disapproved-of aggression, which seems to be
somewhat gaining in popularity, is 'motiveless' destruction of
property, sabotage or vandalism. While this chapter is being written
(February 1954) there is considerable discussion in the papers of
non-political sabotage in warships; a couple of months earlier there
were announcements that Primrose Hill had to be closed after dark,
because of the amount of senseless destruction which was going on.
There is a public footpath or right of way through some of my fields ;
constantly hedges are being broken, stacks overthrown, tiles knocked
off the roofs of some unguarded buildings, without profit for the
perpetrators or the gratification of personal malice; it is destruc-
tion for the sake of destruction, just 'letting off steam'. All over the
country fanners have a similar tale to tell; and the figures for break-
ages and losses on British Railways are remarkably high. A possible
explanation of these activities would be their safety: nobody gets
hurt and things can't feel.

The simile which I used a few pages back of the man keeping the
door shut against the emotional force implied that this was an in-
variable state of affairs, that the conscience always disapproved of
the release of aggression. But this is an oversimplified picture; there
are occasions or situations when the conscience gives its approval
to the release of aggression and then the enormous potential strength
of righteous anger, of righteous indignation is released. A war in a
good cause is the most obvious example : courage, daring, and the
most lethal ingenuity suddenly manifest themselves in practically
the whole of a most civilian population. John Citizen is transformed
into John Bull with a completeness which regularly confounds our
enemies and surprises our friends; instead of the strong conscience
keeping the strong aggression in check, the two, in the literal as well
as the metaphorical sense of the word, join forces and shape the
world.

War against a wicked enemy — and the enemy must clearly be
shown to be wicked by the standards the conscience normally uses —
is probably the only situation nowadays which will release the forces
of righteous anger for the whole (or nearly the whole) population;
for sections of the population political or religious passion or
indignation at injustices or mistreatment of others can have a similar
effect. For individuals too severity can become a duty; as we have
seen, most parents consider children need 'more discipline*; and

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quotations have shown how, for a minority of parents and teachers,
this sense of duty allows aggression to be unleashed. The remarkable
number of cases brought yearly to the notice of the National Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Royal Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals suggest that this is not a very
uncommon phenomenon.

The position of the animal pet calls into question the generalization
I should otherwise make that the checked aggression would have as
its object other people, if it were released. Just on half the families
in England keep some sort of pet animal;6 and I think it is safe to
say that the great majority of these animals are loved and cared for,
more often over-indulged than over-disciplined or neglected. Only
rarely does aggression, manifesting itself as cruelty, come into play;
but I think it is probable that mastery, which might be considered
the constructive aspect of aggression, has an important rdle in the
pleasure which so many English people get from their pets.

Mastery is also, I think, a component of the most widespread
English leisure-time pursuit — gardening.7 Energy is applied to con-
structive use, the desert, or the back yard, is made to blossom.
Kipling, it will be remembered, advised digging as a remedy for the
'cameelious hump', frustration or anger; and I have often found
myself that operations such as pruning or weeding tend to be accom-
panied by fantasies of retaliation for humiliations, slights or annoy-
ances about which I have taken no action. I usually finish the job in
an excellent humour. This may be a purely personal response to
what might be called constructive destruction; I have no means of
knowing whether this be so or not. Gardening is most markedly an
English pursuit, engaged in more by men than by women. Any
complete theory of English character would have to account for
this predilection, which would not appear to be shared to the same
extent by the men of any other country.

The back garden, the prize marrow or giant dahlia, represent one
aspect of mastery over nature. Other Britons have 'tamed' conti-
nents— significant metaphor! — controlled, organized and governed
an empire which, at the end of the nineteenth century, was the most
extensive history has ever recorded. Although, when travelling in
the Empire and Commonwealth, one tends to get the impression
that it is run and populated almost entirely by the Scots and their
descendants, the English undoubtedly had some share in the enter-
prise. It seems possible that voluntary emigration may have attracted
those with the greatest amount of social aggression, the greatest
urge to mastery, leaving a stay-at-home population with less free

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energy and more internal conflict, in 'this country of ours where
nobody is well.'

This hypothesis of a strong conscience successfully controlling
potentially strong aggression is purely descriptive; it does not attempt
to explain either how these qualities are evoked in individuals, so that
babies grow into English men and women, nor how they have
been maintained or transformed over previous generations.

I do not feel that my evidence is sufficient to make more than very
tentative suggestions on the way in which these characteristics are
elicited in the life of most individuals. Good English parents impose
discipline on their children very early (compared with many other
societies) and very consistently, reward the children for compliance
and punish them for contumacy. In most cases the earliest of these
disciplines will be the gentle, patient but insistent training in cleanli-
ness. A strong conscience seems to develop through the fantasied
incorporation of some aspects of the parents who impose a consis-
tent ideal of conduct. Most English parents fulfil this role for their
children almost from the time they are born : the pattern of English
family life would seem to be favourable to the development of a
strong conscience.

The disciplines which the parents think it their duty to impose
must inevitably in many cases thwart the infant's or child's 'natural'
tendencies or desires; it does not seem that English childhood is
normally a paradisal period of unlimited indulgence and freedom.
Probably, all infants and children 'naturally' resent not being
allowed to do or have what they desire when they desire it, or being
forced to do or have things when they do not so desire. The 'natural'
tendency is to express this resentment physically, by the various
mechanisms of infantile or childish rage or temper tantrums or
destructiveness ; but such behaviour is almost universally stigmatized
as 'naughtiness' by English parents and is appropriately punished.
The expression of anger or hate or rage becomes dangerous in itself,
quite apart from the unpleasant internal feelings which accompany
these emotions; the emotions are not discharged but turned inwards.
Anger and hatred probably always carry with them some fear of
losing the love of the parents, which is the most precious thing in a
child's life; when this fear is made realistic by parental disapproval,
the expression of aggression becomes doubly dangerous. These are
possible mechanisms for producing the gentle, tolerant, law-abiding
characters of a highly civilized people.

The strict conscience is, I think, a relatively new historical develop-
ment, as far as the mass of the population is concerned, particularly

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the urban population. It would seem that it has for long been typical
of the English country dweller, squire, yeoman and labourer alike,
and probably, within the limits of contemporary mercantile practice,
of the urban middle class. It seems much less certain whether this
can be said to be true of most of the aristocracy centred on London
during the Regency and the subsequent decades; and in the early
nineteenth century the mass of the population of the towns, both the
new industrial towns and the greater part of London, apart from
the rich residential quarters, seem to have been little troubled by
conscience either in breaking the laws against property, in deviations
from strict sexual morality, or in violence towards their fellow
human-beings or towards animals ; the figures of criminal prosecu-
tions, quoted lower on this page, are extremely high for the size of
the population.

During the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries
the strict conscience and self-control, which had been a feature of a
relatively small part of the English population, became general
throughout nearly the whole of the society, as the present study has
indicated. The forces which led to this transformation in character
are difficult to establish; although religious belief is not nowadays
typical of the prosperous working class, it is possible that the
evangelical missions of John Wesley, of whom it is said that he
prevented the French Revolution reaching England, may have played
a significant part in their time, particularly in the industrial Northern
regions. So too may have done the gradual spread of universal
education. On the basis of the evidence available to me, however, I
should consider that the most significant factor in the development
of a strict conscience and law-abiding habits in the majority of
urban English men and women was the invention and development
of the institution of the modern English police force.8

One of the most impressive demonstrations of the increase in the
law-abiding character of the English is the following table of the
number of criminal commitments in the half century between 1841
and 1891. During this period serious offences decreased 60 per cent
in volume, and 80 per cent relative to the increase of population.

Table of Commitments*

Census Population Number of Proportion

year in millions commitments per \ 00,000

1841 15-9 27,760 174-6

1851 17-9 27,960 1562

1861 20 18,326 91-3

1871 22-7 16,269 71-9

1881 25-9 14,704 56-6

1891 29 11,605 40-0
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As can be seen, the really dramatic break in criminal commitments
came in the decade 1851-1861. Police forces were first established
all over England by the County and Borough Police Act of 1856.
The pattern of the modern, unarmed, uniformed police force, on
duty day and night, was established by Sir Robert Peel's Metropolitan
Police Act of 1829, but in the first instance this Act only operated
in the London area. Despite two permissive Acts for establishing
police forces in the counties and boroughs 'it is a mistake to think
of the years 1835 and 1839 as witnessing sudden and fundamental
changes in the policing of counties and boroughs . . . Police reform
outside London was gradual, patchy and unspectacular', even though
the criminal classes moved in their enormous masses from London
to the unpoliced boroughs after the establishment of the Metropolitan
police.10

The very marked decrease in the number of commitments as soon
as there was a network of police forces based on the same model
covering the whole country would seem to demonstrate the very
great effectiveness of this institution in modifying the aggressive
behaviour of a very large portion of the population; for if behaviour
had not altered, one would have expected a considerable increase
in the number of commitments with the increased efficiency of the
force for apprehending law-breakers.

Taking only the figures of commitments, it might be argued that
the main motive for the drop in criminal statistics was fear. Pre-
sumably this emotion did play a part in restraining some law-
breakers; but I can find no evidence that, from a few years after the
first establishment of the Metropolitan police, the police were ever
actively feared or disliked by the majority of the population. It is
probable that the enthusiastic appreciation of the police, disclosed
by this study, would have been more tempered in the latter half of
the nineteenth century; but I do not think the English police have
ever been felt to be the enemy of sizable non-criminal sections of
the population, as has certainly been the case on some occasions
with French, German and even United States police forces.

When the original Metropolitan police force was set up consider-
able care was taken to eschew any resemblance to the militarized
police forces of the continent and only a very small proportion of
the force has even been drawn from ex-army or ex-navy personnel;
and with the noted exception of the Metropolitan police, all the
police forces in the country were placed, and have remained, under
local authorities, and only indirectly under the central government.
From the first (and especially in tbe early critical years) every

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complaint about the conduct of the police, however extravagant it
might seem, was openly investigated.

What however was really novel about the British police was that
the force was recruited entirely on the basis of character. From its
origin and till this day the only automatic qualifications for recruits
is a certain minimum height and age; and the age of entry is suffi-
ciently high so that the police recruit can be virtually certain of
having passed several years as a worker in civilian life before joining
the force.u The three other qualifications laid down by the Home
Secretary are all matters of opinion rather than of fact: the candidate
should be 'of good character and with a satisfactory record in past
employments; physically and mentally fitted to perform the duties
of a constable; and sufficiently well educated.' Within very wide
limits, what this means is that the recruit should have a suitable
character ; and, with very slight exceptions in certain cases, acceptance
is dependent on the interviews.

The type of character sought (probably a rare one in the classes
from which recruits were drawn) was outlined in the original
regulations drawn up by one of the first two Commissioners of the
Metropolitan police, Mr Mayne, shortly after its foundation in 1829 :

The Constable must remember that there is no qualification more
indispensible to a police officer than a perfect command of temper,
never suffering himself to be moved in the slightest degree by any
language or threats which may be used : if he do his duty in a quiet and
determined manner, such conduct will probably induce well-disposed
bystanders to assist him should he require it.12

'No qualification more indispensible than a perfect command of
temper . . .'; here, it would seem, is the model for the self-control
which has now become so widespread an English characteristic.
Although the policeman had certain authority and prestige, he had
shared in full, and continued to share when off duty, the life of his
fellows; policemen were never segregated in barracks. The police-
man was not separated from the classes from which he was recruited;
he was present and visible as a model of conduct, as a protector
from the destructive forces of society, and, symbolically and in his
own behaviour, from the destructive forces within the personality.
The policeman, it would seem became for many Englishmen the
ideal model of masculine strength and responsibility; as generations
passed, aspects of this ideal figure became incorporated into the
personality; and the English character became, to a very marked
degree, 'self-policing'.

(It is tempting to think that the analogue to the role of the police

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for members of the middle and upper middle classes was the creation
of a permanent Civil Service 'independent of the patronage of
politicians and holding office during good behaviour', with admission
to the senior branches based on examinations and interviews, with
the ideal character judicious, impartial, experienced and self-disci-
plined. The report which established this modern Civil Service was
written in 1854 — two years before the establishment of police forces
all over the country—by Sir Stafford Northcote and Sir Charles
Trevelyan; the principles were seriously implemented some 16 years
later. Unfortunately, I failed to get any information on attitudes
towards the Civil Service which could be compared with the material
on attitudes towards the police.)

So far, while discussing English character, I have only accorded
glancing notice to the different social classes.13 1 should suspect that
all through the nineteenth century, and even perhaps up to a genera-
tion ago, there would have been marked differences in the typical
characters of members of the middle class and of the working class;
but as far as my evidence goes, this is not the case today. There are
very marked differences in habit, in education, accent and vocabulary,
etiquette and standard of living; in January 1951 the median income
of the middle class was some £4 a week higher than the median
income of the working class; and 56 per cent of the middle class
but only 25 per cent of the working class continued their full-time
education after the minimum school-leaving age of 14, But in
attitudes, as opposed to circumstances, there is only one major
subject on which these two classes (making up over three-quarters
of the total population) differ really significantly: this is in religion
and other supernatural beliefs. The middle class is consistently more
religious than the working class. It goes to religious services more,
prays more, is more insistent in teaching its children to pray and
has fewer members belonging to no denomination; it is also more
credulous concerning fortune-tellers, horoscopes and similar devices
for fore-knowing or controlling the future. Compared with the
working class, the middle class has considerably more people re-
proaching themselves for compulsive traits and more advocates for
starting infants' cleanliness training from birth. Middle class parents
are more likely to give their children regular pocket money and to
forbid them accepting money from strangers for services rendered.
Middle class women are more likely to 'shop around' before they
decide which man to marry.

In the working class the family is likely to be a closer geographical
unit than in the middle class; far more working class people live

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

in the same town as their parents, compared with the middle class,
and also near their in-laws. War-time and service friendships are
markedly less important for the working class. Conscious interest
in the opposite sex seems to develop somewhat later in the working
class ; and working-class men are more appreciative of the domestic
skills of their wives. These exceptions apart, the two main classes
which comprise the bulk of the population are quite surprisingly
similar, often identical, in their views and attitudes.

The sections of the population for whom social class does seem
to determine attitudes to a really marked extent are that 25 per cent
who place themselves in other than the middle or working classes :
the two intervening classes, the lower middle and upper working class,
who tend to stress some themes that are much more lightly empha-
sized by the two main classes; and on the other hand the upper
middle and lower working classes, who place themselves above and
below the main bulk of the population, and who differ in many
respects from the remainder.

The most marked characteristic of the members of the lower
middle class, as shown in this survey, is the 'extent to which they
welcome and approve of the authority of the contemporary state.
They are the most enthusiastic admirers of the police, the most
ready to concede authority over their children to the teachers ; they
are the most resolute opponents of 'fiddling', the most eager to state
that laws should be obeyed under any circumstances, that it is always
unfair to try to get more than others. When the questionnaire was
circulated, a Labour government was in power; and the remarks of
a few respondents confirm my impression that this government
represented and carried out the ideals of the lower middle class more
completely than it did that of any other section of the community.

Members of the lower middle class are not superstitious ; few of
them carry mascots in peace or war, visit fortune tellers more than
once, or believe in their powers or those of astrologers. In considering
the good qualities of a wife lower middle class men pay relatively
little attention to her skills as cook and housekeeper; the qualities
particularly valued are 'a sense of humour' (whatever may be the
meaning of this phrase in the context) and fidelity. For both sexes,
somewhat to my surprise, the most important factor making for
happiness or unhappiness in marriage is the presence or absence of
sexual compatibility; they also place much emphasis on good temper
and shared interests. More than any other group, they fear the
expression of aggression — stealing, destruction, and the like — in
their children; and, with only surface inconsistency, they are high

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in their advocacy of caning for naughty boys, and low in their
disapproval of thrashing in appropriate cases.

In contrast to the members of the lower middle class, those pros-
perous and industrious people who consider that they belong to
the upper working class are opposed to the authority of the state,
as at present constituted. It is from this class that stem most of the
criticisms of the police; and they are unwilling to allow the teacher
authority over their children. More emphatically than the members
of any other class they stress paternal authority; father is the head
of the household, and is the proper person to discipline his children;
the chief reason for juvenile delinquency, in the eyes of members
of this class, is that children whose fathers were in the forces didn't
have proper discipline. An interesting counterpart to this belief is
that fewer members of the upper working class than of any other
group in the community, consider that children need more discipline
than they get nowadays; these self-reliant and self-confident men
and women are quite sure that they discipline their children
adequately. It is this group which exercises the greatest amount of
supervision of its children's playmates and the houses they visit. Its
favourite punishment for boys is the cane, for girls the stopping
of pocket-money. Nearly all children in this class are taught to say
prayers, though the parents themselves are not likely to be assiduous
church-goers.

Men of the upper working class put high value on the domestic
skills of their wives. People in this class are particularly likely to
marry the first person to whom they become seriously attached, and
place emphasis on the importance of understanding and mutual
trust to keep a marriage happy; they consider neglect the greatest
cause for marital unhappiness. They will go to considerable lengths to
preserve the marriage; if one of the spouses is involved in an affair
with a third party, the solutions they propose is to talk the matter
over with the erring spouse and try to win him or her back. Members
of the upper working class have little use for shyness.

The members of the lower working class present a strong con-
trast with those of the upper working class, and indeed with the
great bulk of the English population. These people with little money
or education, and with (mostly) big families seem to resemble more
the 'poor', as described by such observers as Mayhew, than any
other contemporary group in the country; they seem to be, in the
anthropological sense of the word, 'survivals'. There is little evidence,
in this group, of the strict conscience, the rigid self-restraint, which
characterizes the greatest part of the population of England. They

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EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

are the only group with an absolute majority in favour of pre-marital
sexual experience for young men, and over a third consider it desirable
for young women too: it's 'human nature'. If, after marriage, they
find their spouse drifting towards infidelity, their solution is to beat
up or kill the intervener : no talking things over for them. Similarly,
they have little fear of their children being aggressive ; and by and
large they try to control their children very little, don't know, or
bother with, their children's playmates or the houses they visit. If
they feel called upon to punish their children they make little use
of withdrawal of privileges or other techniques of deprivation;
the boys are whipped, the girls made to work in the house. Very few
parents of the lower working class think it desirable to start cleanli-
ness training at birth; they somewhat emphasize the second year of
life as the best period to start such training. They tend not to reward
their children, either with praise or pocket money.

The lower working class tend to be both pious and superstitious;
to practice religion and carry mascots and believe in the automatic
luck of days and numbers. They tend to be on bad terms with their
neighbours and have little reliance in their help. They nearly all
admit to fiddling, and (somewhat understandably) are not very
enthusiastic about the police. They are the only class for whom drink
is a major cause of marital unhappiness (surely, another survival)
followed by neglect. They pay little attention to sexual compatibility,
give-and-take or mutual trust as making for the happiness of a
marriage; but they do like their spouses to be economical.

The upper middle class is the most educated and wealthiest
section of the community (this sample had no members of the very
small upper classes) ; and it too varies in very significant ways from
the bulk of the population; and, to the extent that the contemporary
trend is towards levelling in income and education, can perhaps,
like the lower working class, be considered in some sort a survival
from the generations before 1914. But whereas the lower working
classes differed most from the rest of the population by their com-
parative lack of self-restraint in giving vent to their sexuality and
their violence, the upper middle classes differ more subtly, and above
all in their scale of values.

In contrast with the remaining classes in the community, local
bonds are relatively unimportant for the upper middle class. It is,
so to speak, a nation-wide class; its friends and its family are widely
scattered; more than any other class it does not know its neighbours.
Its members would appear to be more social than those of other
classes; they feel shyness less and approve of it less; and few of them

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consider that staying in the bosom of their family is an agreeable
way of spending a pleasant evening.

The views on marriage and the proper rearing of children are
different in the upper middle class. Though they have a tendency
to become engaged after a short acquaintance they are very likely
to marry within their own class, and are almost alone in being
articulately conscious of the dangers to a marriage when the couple
are of different social, religious or national backgrounds. A factor
which members of this class stress as important to the success of
marriage is community of interests; in this class this is far more
important than the domestic skills or equitable temper which the
bulk of the population value highly. Selfishness can be the cause of
marital unhappiness for them; but the concept of give-and-take
which is heavily stressed in all other classes, finds little mention in
this. In the upper middle class, marriage seems to be viewed as a
symmetrical relationship; in the rest of the community it tends to
be a complementary relationship.14

With this view of the relationship of husband and wife, it seems
logical that the upper middle class should on the whole be opposed
to a single authority in the rearing of children, and in favour of
dual (father and mother) or multiple authority, with teachers, nurses
or governesses as well as parents enforcing the proper rules of
behaviour; in this class the supposed legal position of the father as
head of the family is very little mentioned. Members of this class
are emphatic in their demand that children should have more disci-
pline; it seems at least possible that the changed economic situation
which has removed the nannies and governesses from many of the
families is responsible for this demand. Withdrawal of privileges is
relatively little used in this class for punishing naughty girls or boys ;
the favoured punishments are either sending the children to bed, or
else verbal — the withdrawal of love, sarcasm and the like. As regards
the earliest training of infants, parents of the upper middle class
seem to fall into two groups: those who advocate training from
birth, and those who would postpone it for at least six months and
are conscious of the possible dangers of too early training. It seems
likely that this latter group reflects current psychiatric theory.

If belief in hell, the devil and the after-life are components of a
doctrinally sound Christian faith, then there is a markedly high
proportion of doctrinally sound Christians in this class. Except for
a rather high belief in ghosts, members of this class are not super-
stitious, are relatively sceptical about fortune-tellers and astrologers.

As with the classes, so with the regions; it is the relatively smaller

301

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

regions which show marked regional characteristics. Accent is
probably the most marked regional, as it is the most marked class,
characteristic; and accent, of course, is lost in written questionnaires.

In nearly every respect, the Midland region is typical of the whole
of England ; it is a trifle more permissive about sex, and a trifle less
given to church-going and the saying of private prayers, than the
rest of the country; but otherwise the Midlands reflect with very
slight deviations the values and customs of the whole country,
standing at the mid-point of the contrasts between some other
regions. London and the South-East too, differs chiefly in the greater
loneliness of its inhabitants, who are more likely to be separated
from their kin and know nothing of their neighbours than are the
inhabitants of the rest of the country.

The three other regions differ in their social composition. The
South-West is the most rural of all the English regions, the most
generally religious (in so far as church going and saying prayers is a
sign of being religious) and the only one which pays much attention
to the problem of drunkenness. Many of the lower working class
come from the small villages of the West country, and to a certain,
though diminished, extent, the values of that class modify the values
of that region.

The difference between the North and the South is almost a cliche
in all discussions on English characteristics. This study bears out the
cliche to a certain extent; but though the North does differ from
the South, as a whole, the two Northern regions, divided by the
Pennines, differ much more dramatically from one another than
either differs from the rest of the country. There are some points of
resemblance between the North- West and the South-West; at least
in some aspects it would be as sensible to talk about the East- West
division of the country as to talk about the contrast of North and
South.

One of the major contrasts between the North and the South is
that there are proportionately far fewer members of the Church of
England in the North; but in the North- West the creed of the next
most sizable group is Roman Catholicism, whereas in the North-East
and North it is Methodism. The major point of contrast between the
two Northern regions cannot be surely connected with this difference
in denomination, though it is not incongruous with it; undoubtedly
the different industrial traditions also play an important part.

Put briefly, in the North-Western region women have greater
authority in their family and greater independence than in any
other part of England; in the North-East and North paternal

302

TO SEE OURSELVES

authority is at its highest, and there are the greatest number of all-
male associations. A number of fairly self-evident traits cluster
round these two images of the family; the North-East is more severe,
with high demands for more discipline and fears of bad results if
infant training is postponed; the North- West is more permissive,
gentler, and more protective; mothers from this region are somewhat
more likely to supervise their children's associations and to forbid
them taking money from strangers. The North-East is highly
sceptical of fortune-tellers, astrologers and the like; the North- West
is not. Although women have less authority in the North-East and
North than in any other region, the men are particularly appreciative
of their wives' specific domestic skills; the good cook and good
housekeeper receives her full meed of praise from her 'hard-headed'
husband. In both Northern regions local endogamy (choosing a
husband or wife from the same community as oneself) is more
common than in the rest of the country, and consequently the exten-
ded family, comprising grand-parents, uncles, aunts, cousins and
similar relatives, is much less broken up than it is in the Midlands
and Southern regions.

As far as differences in values and attitudes are concerned, the
greatest contrast between groups of English people is not that
between different social classes or between different regions but
between men and women. Since this has been illustrated in very
full detail in the earlier chapters, it does not seem necessary to
recapitulate the evidence here.

In the three years during which I have been occupied with the data
on which this study has been founded, I have been increasingly
more impressed with the basic unity of the people of England.
The upper middle and lower working classes, the mother-centred
North- West and father-centred North-East and North depart to a
somewhat marked extent from the habits and attitudes of the rest
of the country; but in the main the English are a truly unified people,
more unified, I would hazard, today than at any previous period
of their history. When I was reading, with extreme care, the first
batch of questionnaires which I received, I found I was constantly
making the same notes : * What dull lives most of these people appear
to lead!' I remarked; and secondly, 'What good people!' I should
still make the same judgments.

NOTES TO CHAPTER FIFTEEN

1 . Fifteen men described themselves as practicing homosexuals, two as sadists, and
three as fetishists, out of a population of about 6,000. No women accused themselves

303

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

of perversions; a very few mentioned masturbation; and a dozen or so described
themselves as allumeuses: Tm interested m getting a boy, but I'm not so interested
when I've got him.' These figures are of course no indication of the prevalence of
such practices or attitudes in the population.

2. In May 1952 the British Institute of Public Opinion asked a sample from the
whole of Britain: 'Would you say you worry a lot — a fair amount — a little — not at
all?' These answers would of course include rational worries, but the differences
between men and women still appear significant. Twenty-nine per cent of the women
but only 16 per cent of the men consider they worry 'a lot' ; 3 1 per cent of the women
and 30 per cent of the men 'a fair amount' ; 29 per cent of the women and 33 per cent
of the men 'a little'; 11 per cent of the women but 21 per cent of the men 'not at all'.
The BIPO combines social and economic status, so that it is impossible to tell whether
the women who worry *a lot' are significantly concentrated among those who consider
themselves middle or lower middle class.

3. In an analysis of English and American advertisements, directed by Dr Margaret
Mead, it was found that the majority of English advertisements were illustrated by a
single, isolated figure, the majority of American ones by a couple (man and girl) or
by a family.

4. M. Sadleir: Fanny by Gaslight and Forlorn Sunset (London. Constable, 1940
and 1947).

5. See Chapter Two, p. 21.

6. Patterns of British Life, p. 100, Table 16.

7. Op. cit., pp. 107, 108, Tables 27 and 28.

8. This theme is developed in somewhat more detail in Appendix One.

9. Quoted from W L. Melville Lee: A History of Police in England, p 337 (London:
Methuen, 1901).

10. J. M. Hart: The British Police (London: Allen & Unwin, 1951), p. 31. Lee,
op. cit., p. 272.

11. Between 1928 and 1939 the average age of entry was a little over twenty-two.
Oaksey Report on Police Conditions of Service, 1949, H.M. Stationery Office.

12. Quoted by Lee, op. cit., p. 242.

13. In this and the following paragraphs I am only dealing with the more marked
contrasts between the various social classes and regions, where there are differences
m the neighbourhood of 10 per cent between the highest and lowest figures.

14. See Gregory Bateson: Culture Contact and Schismogenesis in Man, XXXV.

304

APPENDIX ONE

MODIFICATION OF NATIONAL CHARACTER: THE
PSYCHOLOGICAL ROLE OF THE POLICE IN ENGLAND

(an elaboration of Chapter Fifteen pp. 294-296)

I WISH TO advance the hypothesis that one of the techniques by
which the national character of a society may be modified or trans-
formed over a given period is through the selection of personnel for
institutions which are in continuous contact with the mass of the
population in a somewhat super-ordinate position. If the personnel
of the institution are chosen chiefly for their approximation to a
certain type of character, rather than for specific intellectual or
physical skills; if persons with this type of character have not
hitherto been consistently given positions of authority; and if the
authority of the institution is generally felt to be benevolent, protec-
tive, or succouring; then the character exemplified by the members
of this institution will to a certain degree become part of the ego
ideal of the mass of the population, who will tend to mould their own
behaviour in conformity with this ideal, and will reward and punish
the behaviour of their children in the light of this pattern which
they have adopted. -As generations pass, the attempt to approximate
to this ideal will become less and less conscious, and increasingly
part of the unconscious mechanisms which determine the content
of the super-ego or of the ego ideal; with the consequence that a
type of character which may have been relatively very uncommon in
the society when the institution was first manned will subsequently be-
come relatively common, and even perhaps typical of the society, or of
those portions of it with which the members of the institution are in
most continuous contact or from which their personnel is drawn.

The institution which I propose to examine in detail is the English
police forces; but the evidence which is available to me suggests
that strictly analogous functions were performed by the public
school teachers of the United States1 2 particularly during the period
of the great immigrations of the half century ending in 1914, when
masses of immigrants' children were transformed into '100 per cent
Americans'; and that a similar attempt is being made in the
U.S.S.R.3 4 where the members of the Communist Party are con-
sciously presented as models for the mass of the population.

The modern English police force had its inception in the Metro-

305

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

politan Police Act of Sir Robert Peel in 1829; it was a generation
before Police Forces became mandatory all over the country, through
the County and Borough Police Act of 1856.5 In one important
respect the Metropolitan Police is anomalous ; it is directly responsible
to the Home Secretary, to the centralized government; all the other
Police forces in the country are controlled by local authorities. In
the counties the chief officer of police has the legal power to promote
and recruit other members of the force; in the borough forces of
England and Wales the power of appointment lies (at least legally; in
practice it is usually the chief constable who exercises the authority) in
the hands of the watch committee.6 In its relationship to the com-
munity it serves and protects the Metropolitan Police is on a different
footing to the numerous other forces in Britain (in 1857 there were
239 separate forces, a number gradually reduced by amalgamation
to 129 in 1949); but its practices and standards have always served
as a model to the other Police forces throughout the Kingdom.

The chief novelties in Peel's conception of the police appear to be
(i) the institution of a force for the prevention of crime and mainten-
ance of public order, rather than for the apprehension of criminals
after the crime was committed; (ii) the high visibility of the police in
a distinctive uniform, what Inspector J. L. Thomas has called the
'scarecrow function* of the police;7 (iii) the fact that the police were
on continuous duty during the whole 24 hours (the Bow Street
runners were not in uniform and only patrolled during the evenings,
invariably finishing duty by midnight);8 (iv) the fact that the police
were unarmed, except for the truncheon, which was no more for-
midable than the 'life-preserver' which many gentlemen of the
period carried on their walks abroad; (v) the fact that every com-
plaint against the conduct of the police was publicly investigated;9
(vi) the fact that the police were never segregated in barracks nor
treated as a para-military formation, as occurred in a number of
European countries; and (vii) the fact that, apart from certain
qualifications of height and age, the police were recruited entirely
on the basis of their character, and not on their previous employment,
or through patronage, or for the possession of any special skills
beyond an unfixed minimum of education. Neither examinations
nor tests have ever preceded recruitment into the police force,
though new entrants are naturally given training after they have
been accepted. It is this last point which I wish to examine in greater
detail.

The great bulk of the police has almost continuously been drawn
from the ranks of skilled and semi-skilled labour, from the working,

306

APPENDIX ONE

upper working and lower middle classes. In 1832, three years after its
inception, Peel's Metropolitan Force was composed of former
members of the following careers: 135 butchers, 109 bakers, 198
shoemakers, 51 tailors, 402 soldiers, 1,151 labourers, 205 servants,
141 carpenters, 75 bricklayers, 20 turners, 55 blacksmiths, 151 clerks,
141 shop-keepers, 141 'superior mechanics', 46 plumbers and painters,
101 sailors, 51 weavers and 8 stonemasons.10 The heterogeneity of
this list is probably typical of the composition of most of the
English police forces over the last 120 years, with two exceptions:
the proportion of former military and naval personnel is rather high,
except for recruitment in the years immediately following a major
war;11 and in this first Metropolitan Force there is no special mention
of the agricultural labourers (unless the 'labourers' without speci-
fication came from the country) who for a great part of the nineteenth
century made up a very high proportion of the police recruits.12
Agricultural labourers were considered to excel in physique and
stamina; and, in the words of a former Commissioner of the Metro-
politan Police to the American writer, R. B. Fosdick: They are
slow but steady; you can mould them to any shape you please.'13
With the increasing industrialization of England, the proportion
of agricultural labourers has steadily dropped; and today most
police recruits were former industrial workers, office workers,
commercial travellers or shop assistants.14 It also seems probable
that the type of character sought for in a police recruit was formerly
much more common in the rural population than in the violent and
unruly urban mobs ; but with the modification of character which
has been hypothesized in the mass of the English population,
people of suitable temperament can be found in all strata of the
English population, except possibly the lower working class.

It would seem to be worth re-quoting the only conditions laid
down by the Home Secretary for the selection of police recruits.
He, or she, must be (1) within certain age limits; (2) not less than
a stated height; (3) of a good character and with a satisfactory record
in past employments; (4) physically and mentally fitted to perform
the duties of a constable; and (5) sufficiently well educated.15 Apart
from the criteria of age and height, this means in fact that the selec-
tion of recruits depends almost entirely on the result of interviews
with the Chief Constable of the Force concerned; his experience and
skill in assessing character by unformalized techniques of observa-
tion and interrogation replace the selection boards, psychological
tests and other techniques of examination which are used for screening
the entrants to most life-time careers of responsibility and authority.

307

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

In connection with the character of the members of the police
force, the criterion of height may merit a little consideration. The
minimum fixed by the Home Secretary is 5 ft 8 in. for men, which
already excludes more than half the male population, since the
average height of the British male is 5 ft 1\ in.16 In point of fact,
only three of the country's police forces, though those are three of
the largest (Metropolitan, Birmingham and Buckinghamshire) in 1949
were content with the Home Secretary's permitted minimum; about
30 forces will take men of 5 ft 9 in., and another 20 of 5 ft 9|- in. ; the
remainder — somewhat more than 70 forces — insist on a minimum
of 5 ft 10 in.17 This means that most of the police recruits come from
a small and, statistically speaking, physically unrepresentative section
of the population, perhaps some 10 per cent of the whole; and al-
though the connection between physique and character is still
comparatively undetermined,18 the folk observation that big men
are likely to be easy-going, even-tempered, just and slow to anger
may well have some foundation in fact. Although the minimum
height was probably imposed with the intention of securing physically
strong and impressive men, it may have had the secondary effect
of securing that recruits were selected from people of constitutionally
equitable temperament.

From its foundation, the emphasis of the British Police force has
been on the preservation of peace, on the prevention of crime and
violence, rather than the apprehension of criminals and rioters.
The swearing-in oath taken by each constable on entering the Force
reads :

I A.B. do swear that I will well and truly serve our Sovereign Lady

the Queen in the office of Constable without Favour or Affection,

Malice or Ill-will; and that I will to the best of my Power cause the
Peace to be kept and preserved, and prevent all offence against the
Persons and Properties of Her Majesty's Subjects; and that while I
continue to hold the said Office I will to the best of my skill and know-
ledge discharge all the Duties thereof faithfully according to Law.19

Similarly the regulations drawn up by Mr Mayne, one of the two
first Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police, emphasize :

The absence of crime will be considered the best proof of the com-
plete efficiency of the police. ... In divisions where this security and
good order have been effected, the officers and men belonging to it may
feel assured that such good conduct will be noticed by rewards and
promotions.

The Constable must remember that there is no qualification more
indispensible to a police officer than a perfect command of temper,

308

APPENDIX ONE

never suffering himself to be moved in the slightest degree by any
language or threats that may be used: if he do his duty in a quiet and
determined manner, such conduct will probably induce well-disposed
bystanders to assist him should he require it.20

This emphasis on the prevention of aggression, on the preserving
of the peace by a uniformed group of powerful men demonstrating
self-restraint would appear to have been a real novelty in English
public life; it was not originally accepted without a great deal of
opposition and abuse both from the press and from many representa-
tives of the governing classes.21 Prior to the coming into force of the
Metropolitan Police, wearers of uniform tended to be either sym-
bolically or potentially oppressors and exploiters rather than
protectors of the mass of the population: members of the armed
forces, proverbially licentious and lawless, or the liveried servants
of the rich and mighty. The policeman in uniform was still a member
of his class in the hours off duty, had social as well as official contacts
with his neighbours, and very much the same standard of living.
Up to 1919 a policeman of the lowest rank was paid at roughly the
same rate as an agricultural labourer,22 but with the extra perquisites
of housing and clothing allowances, security of tenure if conduct
was satisfactory, and a pension on retirement at a comparatively
early age. These pensions were finally established by the Police Act
of 1890, but they had been part of the plan for the Police force from
the earliest years; a superannuation fund was originally established
in 1839. The police were disenfranchised up to the passing of the
Police Disabilities Removal Bill in 1887.23

I have been able to find very little discussion of the motives which
impel a young man or woman of superior physique and character
to take up a profession or occupation which even today is not
financially particularly rewarding. I do not think any systematic
research has been done on the subject; but Inspector J. L. Thomas
of the City of Bradford Police has some illuminating observations
to make.24

In other callings (he writes) with a high age of entry, such as the
Church and the teaching profession, the tyro must previously devote a
number of years to studying and training for his future work, and the
Police Service is probably unique in taking on men aged twenty years
and upwards, who have no preliminary training whatsoever for the work
they are to perform. It follows therefore that it has to attract men
already engaged in an occupation, and the question which presents
itself is: What were the motives that induced young men to quit a
diversity of jobs to become policemen?

309

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

Among the answers he suggests are: pay steady and not subject
to the caprice of trade or industry, though not high; a reasonable
pension at a comparatively early age; unemployment following a
'dead end' job; lack of specialized training after a period in the
armed forces ; and similar circumstances.

Minor causes, such as the power a policeman is supposed to yield,
may have influenced some men. . . .

While it is acknowledged that some men now serving did cherish over
a long period an ardent desire to become policemen, it is suggested that
they are in the minority, and that most policemen more or less drifted
into their present job, through force of circumstances, such as those
already described, rather than having been impelled by a strong sense
of vocation. . . .

'How then', it may be asked, 'has the English police service succeeded
in gaining such a large measure of public approbation ?' This can only
be attributed to the rigid observance of a number of fundamental
rules . . . the principal ones are: selecting the best men available;
preserving the civilian character of the Force by recruiting from the
population at large and from a wide diversity of occupations; main-
taining a high standard of discipline, integrity and esprit de corps", and
observing the principle of promotion by merit.

Consequently, the nature of the occupation previously followed by a
policeman has little direct bearing on his new career. . . . The motive
which prompted a man to enlist is not such a vital factor as may have
been thought at first. As a matter of fact it is often the men with the
strongest inclination to become policemen who are the most unsuitable
for the position.

These perspicacious remarks omit, I think, consideration of one
motive which, though it may not play a large role in the decision to
enlist, may quite probably be influential in keeping the new recruits
in the profession they have chosen: that is the respect with which
the members of the police force are regarded by their peers. This is
certainly the case today;25 and although there is no comparable
evidence from earlier periods, the descriptions of members of the
police in novels by Charles Dickens or Wilkie Collins26 or in music-
hall songs and jokes and similar anecdotal evidence suggests that
during the whole of the last century the English policeman has been
regarded with respect by a considerable portion of the population.

I should like to suggest that, increasingly during the past century,
the policeman has been for his peers not only an object of respect,
but also a model of the ideal male character, self-controlled, possess-
ing more strength than he ever has to call into use except in the
gravest emergency, fair and impartial, serving the abstractions of

310

APPENDIX ONE

Peace and Justice rather than any personal allegiance or sectional
advantage. This model, distributed throughout the population
(in 1949 there were 59,000 police officers, averaging one police
officer for every 720 inhabitants; the force authorized was 71,000,
one for every 600 inhabitants)27 has, I suggest, had an appreciable
influence on the character of most of the population during recent
decades, so that the bulk of the population has, so to speak, incor-
porated the police man or woman as an ideal and become progres-
sively more 'self-policing'; and with this incorporation there has
been an increasing amount of identification, so that today, in the
words of one typical respondent:

I believe the police stand for all we English are, maybe at first appear-
ance slow perhaps, but reliable stout and kindly, I have the greatest
admiration for our police force and I am proud they are renowned
abroad.

If this hypothesis be true, then what started as an expedient to
control the very great criminality and violence of large sections of
the English urban population28 has resulted in a profound modifica-
tion of the character of this urban population. In a somewhat
similar fashion, the need to provide a common language and literacy
for the children of immigrants in the United States placed the
American public school teacher in a position of prestige which was
not shared by her colleagues in any European society and turned
her into a model of ideal American conduct and so modified American
character with an incorporated school teacher to parallel the
incorporated policeman of the English. There is not yet com-
parable evidence to show whether the communist party member in
the U.S.S.R. (or, for that matter, China) is producing analogous
results in the mass of the population; this institution is much
more recent than the two others hitherto discussed, but the personnel
is distributed throughout the population in much the same pro-
portions and similar relationship as the policeman and the teacher.
The major contrasts are that the policy is quite self-conscious on the
part of the governments, and that the Communist Party members are
publicly connected with the whole apparatus of state power, in a
way that neither the police nor the school teachers, both under the
control of local authorities, are; and this public connection with
state power may interfere with the processes of identification by the
powerless; for, it would seem, it is by means of the more-or-less
complete and more-or-less conscious identification with the members
of an admired and succouring institution that the characters of the
mass of the population are gradually modified or transformed.

311

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

NOTES TO APPENDIX ONE

1. Margaret Mead: And Keep Your Powder Dry (New York, Morrow, 1942).
Especially Chapter Three.

2. Geoffrey Gorer: The Americans (London, Cresset Press, 1948). Especially
Chapter Three.

3. Margaret Mead: Soviet Attitudes Toward Authority (New York, McGraw-Hill
1951).

4. Raymond Bauer: The New Man in Soviet Psychology (Cambridge, Harvard
University Press, 1952).

5. J. M. Hart: The British Police (The New Town and County Hall Series : Allen and
Unwin, London, 1951). pp. 27-32.

6. Oaksey Report on Police Conditions of Service (London, H.M. Stationery Office,
1949). Part II, p. 9.

7. J. L. Thomas, Inspector: The Scarecrow Function of the Police (London, The
Police Journal, Vol. XVIII, 1945).

8 J L. Thomas: op. cit , p. 299.

9. W L. Melville Lee, Captain: A History of Police in England (London, Methuen,
1901). p. 250.

10. J. L. Thomas, Inspector: (II) Recruits for the Police Service (London, The Police
Journal Vol. XIX, 1946). p. 293.

11. J. L. Thomas: op. cit. II, p. 297.

12. J. L. Thomas: op. cit. II, p. 293.

13. R B. Fosdick: European Police Systems, n d.

14. J. L. Thomas: op. cit., p. 152.

15. J M. Hart op. cit., p. 152.

16. W J. Martm: The Physique of Young Adult Males (Memor. Med. Res. Coun.
No. 20, 1949, London, H.M. Stationery Office).

17. Oaksey Report, op. cit., Part II, p. 7. If a minimum height of 5 ft 10 in. had been
insisted on by the three forces which accepted recruits of the minimum regulation
height of 5 ft 8 in., the Metropolitan police would have lost 35 per cent, Buckingham-
shire 52 per cent and Birmingham 65 per cent of the men recruited.

18. Attempts to correlate physique and character or temperament have been made
by a number of researchers, notably Kretschmer Physique and Character (English
translation 1925) and W. H. Sheldon The Varieties of Human Physique (1940), The
Varieties of Temperament (1942) and Varieties of Delinquent Youth (1949); but to date
there has not been either general acceptance of their hypotheses, or convincing applica-
tion of them by other researchers.

19. J. M. Hart: op. cit , p. 10.

20. Quoted by W. L. Melville Lee: op. cit, p. 242.

21. W. L, Melville Lee: op cit., pp. 245 et seq.

22. J, M. Hart: op. cit , p. 50.

23 W. L. Melville Lee: op. cit., pp. 374, 400.

24. J. L. Thomas: op. cit II, pp. 293-6.

25. See Table 80 and Chapter XIII.

26. E.g. Inspector Bucket m Charles Dickens' Bleak House \ Sergeant Cuff in Wilkie
Collins' The Moonstone.

27. J. M. Hart: op. cit., p. 8.

28. Among other material, see W. L. Melville Lee: op. cit. especially pp. 196-222
J. L. Thomas, op. cit. I, p. 299. '

312

APPENDIX TWO

ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF QUESTIONNAIRES
FOR THE STUDY OF NATIONAL CHARACTER

IT APPEARS THAT it might be useful to make a few observations on
the advantages and disadvantages of using questionnaires as a
research technique for the study of national character, as compared
with the techniques of interviewing and observation which have
been used in nearly all previous studies.

The advantages are immediately obvious. Apart from the designing
of the questionnaire — a point which will be returned to later —
research by questionnaire is far less dependent on individual or
idiosyncratic skills than research by interview or observation; con-
sequently it is a technique of considerably wider applicability. It
is probably the most satisfactory device for determining the extent
of the differences between the social classes or regions of which a
society is composed; and it could be used to indicate with some
precision the way members of a society change their attitudes and
practices over a given period.

The foremost disadvantage is that it excludes information of any
depth on the interaction between individuals, between groups and
between institutions. The shared elements and attitudes (in contrast
to individual characteristics) which are the components of national
character become most obvious in the observation or interviewing of
groups of people; with the questionnaire filled up by the solitary
individual, as with the psychiatrically oriented interview in privacy,
a great deal of this information tends to be lost. Many of the ques-
tions which I devised (19-25, especially 24 and 25, 26-34, especially
33 and 34, 57-81 and others) were designed to get information on
social inter-action; but I do not consider such information is com-
parable in quality to that which can be obtained from the careful
and continuous observation of specific neighbourhoods or families.
Metaphorically speaking, only one dimension is given of a multi-
dimensional figure.

A second disadvantage is that it is an extremely time-consuming
technique unless the researcher has a staff of fairly highly qualified
assistants. The coding of the questionnaires, and the transfer of the
codes to punch cards is a fairly simple (though expensive) operation
with 'closed' questions in which the answers are limited by the ques-

313

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

tionnaire form; but undoubtedly most insight is derived from
'open-ended' questions, to which the respondent replies in his or
her own words. To produce a small number of categories which
will fit, without too much ambiguity, a great variety of answers,
calls for methodological ingenuity. I worked with a sample of 500
questionnaires chosen at random, each of which was analysed in
very considerable detail; even so in some cases (perhaps especially
tables 107 and 108) it appeared that the categories decided on were
in some cases too inclusive, lumping together answers which could
usefully have been analysed separately; and in others too precise,
creating special categories for very small numbers of respondents. In
research such as this, it would probably be better to analyse 10 per
cent (rather than 5 per cent) of the questionnaires before determining
which categories should be applied.

Nearly every questionnaire provides a 'profile' of the respondent;
if it is read with sufficient care, and attention paid to such features
as hand-writing, spelling, punctuation, choice of words, the use of
the space in the questionnaire, and attention to the subsidiary
instructions, one can get a very good idea of the character and
temperament of the individual respondent. But this is all based on
faint clues ; to make the evidence explicit would require a very great
number of words m nearly every case; and to publish them in any
fullness would be a breach of faith with one's collaborators who
had filled out the anonymous questionnaire; but it is this regiment
of people faintly perceived who manifest under their multifarious
diversity the national character which is being analysed; only if the
investigator has these thousands of individuals present in his mind
can he articulate the answers to questions on many disparate topics
into a whole with some sort of coherence.

It consequently seems essential that the investigator must himself
read every questionnaire with analytic care to gain some picture of
his respondents, and this is a considerable job. For the fullest ques-
tionnaires (those filled by parents of living children) I would reckon
that I seldom took less than a quarter of an hour on each respondent;
and I am a very fast worker with such material.

It is relatively seldom that a single reading of a questionnaire is
sufficient. Besides obtaining evidence of individual character, one
also wishes to find and excerpt typical or illustrative quotations;
and, as the work proceeds, one may wish to find all the respondents
of a given type or category which may not have been isolated in
the original coding, or determine whether a generalization be sup-
ported by the evidence. In the present study, for example, I wished

314

APPENDIX TWO

to gather together all the respondents who had any connection
either professionally or familially, with the police (Chapter Thirteen);
I wished to see if nail-biters showed any common group of charac-
teristics (an investigation with few positive results which is not
included here); and having written (Chapter Ten, p. 155) 'there is
practically no mention of what might be called the ethical attitude
to divorce, the feeling that it is morally wrong to keep bound to
one a partner who prefers another', it was necessary to check
whether this was an impression due to the fact that I had not been
paying attention to this aspect of the attitudes towards marriage
and divorce in my previous analyses, or was firmly based on
the evidence. These later searches for the presence or absence of
specific material could of course be usefully carried out by research
assistants, if the investigator is lucky enough to have such help
available.

Because of the many extra clues provided, I consider that for this
type of research written questionnaires are far more profitable than
the answers to the same questions obtained from interviews. When
any considerable sample is being interviewed it is necessary to employ
relatively unsophisticated interviewers., and it cannot be expected
that they will record the actual phrases, the hesitations or spon-
taneity of the interviewees which would give comparable (if fully
recorded, even more reliable) insight into their personalities as well
as their opinions.

The greater number of the interviewers who work for the different
polls and market research organizations are young women, usually
of a somewhat higher standard of education (and, in England,
probably of somewhat higher social class) than most of the people
they interview; and consequently, in these brief and formal sessions
the interviewees will be guided in their responses by their attitudes
towards young women, as well as towards people of a different social
level. It seems to me that in England, at any rate, this modifies the
answers given in certain quite predictable ways. Modesty becomes
an important factor when the interviewees are men; and both sexes
will tend to present a picture of themselves which they think would
excite the interviewer's approval.

Apart from the purely factual questions concerning age, marital
status and so on, 32 of the questions which were asked in the ques-
tionnaire (just under a third of the total) were simultaneously asked
of a stratified sample in interviews. Thirteen of these (7, 9, 10, 17, 18,
44, 62, 79, 96, 97, 101, 102, 106) have answers which are the same as
those from the questionnaire to within 2 or 3 per cent; they are

315

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

all either 'neutral' questions, or, in the case of 101, 102, 106,
sub-divisions of a major question, dealing with only a portion of the
population.

A second group of nine questions (20, 21, 22, 23, 73, 76, 81, 104,
105) all share the common feature that they ask the respondents
to choose one of a graduated series of answers — always, often,
occasionally, never, or the like; in the answers to all these questions
the people interviewed tended to choose the polar answers (always
or never, for example) whereas people filling up the questionnaire,
and presumably thinking over their answers more carefully, some-
what favour the intermediate answers. For all these questions the
discrepancies between the questionnaire and the field survey disappear
if 'always' and 'often' or other positive answers on the one hand,
and 'occasionally* and 'never' or other negative answers on the other,
are grouped together. Without the check of the written questionnaire
the patterns of behaviour would appear to be much more strongly
contrasted than they are in fact.1

Of the remaining ten tables, two (40 and 41) cannot be usefully
compared with the answers from the questionnaire, because in the
latter the instructions were not properly followed, a point discussed
again below. All the remainder (19, 24, 33, 34, 63, 71, 72, 100)
differed in quite a marked degree from the answers given in the
questionnaire, and nearly all tended to give answers reflecting
favourably on the respondents. Far more people in the interviews
claimed that they found friends among their neighbours (19), and
that they could rely entirely on their neighbours help in a pinch (24).
This latter question (24) is the only one of those asked in the field
survey which gave the possibility of expressing aggression in the
answers, and nowhere is there a more marked contrast between the
answers of the field survey and of the questionnaire. When asked
about the company they would choose to spend a pleasant evening
with (33) and the company they actually enjoyed 'last Saturday' (34)
the interviewees show markedly greater fondness for their own
families and markedly less interest in the company of a member of
the opposite sex than do the respondents to the questionnaire; they
present a picture of domestic respectability undisturbed by anything
so unbecoming as an interest in sex. (The same pattern emerges in
the answer to the question: 'How old were you when you started
being really interested in girls (boys)?' with 20 per cent of the men
and 12 per cent of the women naming some age over 19; but the
answers are so clumsily categorized in groups of 3 years that it has
not seemed worth while reproducing the tables.) Modesty evidently

316

APPENDIX TWO

made male respondents answer 'When should a child start being
trained to be clean?* (63) as though the question referred to washing
rather than toilet training; the habits of small babies are obviously
much too indelicate for a respectable man to discuss with a strange
young woman.

The remaining three tables are slightly more ambiguous. Con-
siderably more of the parents interviewed than of those who filled
the questionnaire consider that children should never be given
public praise (71) and far more said they did not give their children
regular pocket money when they started going to school (72) ; these
answers could be due to the interviewed parents not wishing to
present themselves as unduly 'spoiling' their children; alternatively,
this may perhaps be a reflection of a changing attitude, since the
interviewed sample is somewhat older than the main sample. Finally,
a very much smaller proportion of those interviewed said they had
ever been to a fortune-teller (100), 28 per cent contrasted with 44
per cent; this may represent a real difference in practice, the readers
of the People being more prone to believe in such techniques than
the population as a whole; alternatively, interviewees may have
thought that the interviewer would think less well of them if they
admitted that they had done so.

The same principles — the tendency to choose 'polar' answers,
and to present oneself in as favourable a light as possible — can I
think be seen operating in the tables I have quoted from the Gallup
Poll and Odhams Press Research Department. In questions which
do not offer graded choices nor reflect on the respectability of the
respondents, the answers from the polls and from the written ques-
tionnaire are closely comparable; in the remainder the differences
all seem to be accountable for by these two principles.

From my experience with this research, I should consider that it
is most undesirable ever to alter the instructions in the course of a
questionnaire. I did this in four questions, with unsatisfactory results.
Two questions (79 and 81) carried the instruction:

Please mark which of the following statements most nearly represents
your own opinion. If more than one do, please mark the most important
T, the next most important 42' — and so on.

A certain, though relatively small, number of my respondents
marked more than one entry with a tick, which made scoring of
these questionnaires impossible. Both of these questions were also
asked in the field survey.

317

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

A second pair of questions (40 and 41, 53 and 54) carried the
instruction :

Please mark in the first column the statement you most AGREE with
and in the second column the statement you most DISAGREE with.
(Only ONE statement for agree and ONE for disagree. Mark with X).

Despite the capitals, barely half the respondents paid attention
to this instruction, and proceeded to mark more than one statement,
which is why the answers from the main sample and the field survey
on questions 40 and 41 are not comparable. No matter how high the
income or social class of the respondents, at least a quarter in each
category marked more than one statement, though the most con-
sistent disregard of the instructions came from the poor and old. If
I were drawing up this questionnaire again I should contrive some-
how to get the same information from questions so framed that
they could be answered either with a simple tick or by writing.

I have already given in Chapter Two the main assumptions which
I held when I drew up the questionnaire; but it may be worth noting
here the principles which decided what questions should be asked
to test these assumptions. Within the limits of what is practical, I
think it essential that at least some information should be obtained
concerning each of the basic institutions which anthropologists
have discovered to be common to all societies.2 In any study of
national character, it is inevitable that major attention will be given
to the institutions of the family and of education, for it is in these
contexts that aspects of national character can be studied most
simply. In this study I have paid some attention to the extended
family as well as the nuclear family and to formal as well as informal
education, though not with the completeness which would theoreti-
cally be desirable. I paid particular attention to the institution of
religion, both because I considered it to be of intrinsic interest and
because it is a subject which seems to me to have been unduly
neglected in recent studies of national character. Questions also
dealt with social control (the 'tribe-state'), defence (the armed forces,
though these questions were unrewarding), the deference structure
(social class), the geographical divisions of the small neighbourhood
and the larger region, and neighbourhood activities. The institutions
which this survey touched on more lightly than I could have wished
were economics and politics. The only economic information was
present family income, and I still do not know how such information
can usefully be obtained by questionnaires; luckily there is a great
deal of specialized material available on this aspect of English culture.

318

APPENDIX TWO

On politics (the 'tribe-nation') my only information is on attendance
at political clubs. Were this research to be done again, I should
certainly include a couple of questions on political attitudes;3 I
omitted them in this instance because I feared they might be resented;
but with my greater experience of the willing co-operation of my
respondents I should no longer have the same qualms.

However long and detailed the questionnaire, it is not to be
supposed that adequate information on the structure and function
of any institution can be obtained by such means alone; but by
placing some questions in the context of each of the major social
institutions one is more likely to obtain a balanced picture of the
operations of the society and so to guard against the distortions
which may result if all attention is focused on a single aspect of a
most complex whole.

NOTES TO APPENDIX TWO

1. I asked Mr W. D. McClelland, director of the Research Dept. of Odhams Press,
Limited, whether this observation was borne out by his great experience of question-
naires. He replied : 'It is our experience that, where graded choices do exist, there is
a tendency to choose the extremes. One of the arts of compiling a questionnaire is
to so word the possible choices as to eliminate this tendency. ... In general, however,
m personal interviews, I think that it can be said that the emphasis tends to be placed
rather more on the extremes than is the case with mail surveys.'

2. See B. Malinowski, passim, but especially his article 'Culture' in the Encyclopedia
of Social Sciences, IV, 621-57; Coral Gardens and Their Magic (London, 1935); The
Group and the Individual in Functional Analysis (The American Journal of Sociology,
XLIV (1939), 938-64).

3. The questions I should ask would be: Did you vote at the last general election?
If Yes, which party did you vote for? If there were an election today, would you vote
the same way?

319

THE QUESTIONNAIRE

NOTE: This questionnaire is reproduced in one of the forms in which it was circu-
lated; the order of the questions and the numbers attached to them are not the same
as those used in the text of this book. This form is that sent to fathers of living children.
All respondents were sent Questions 1 to 45 ; married people without children Ques-
tions 1 to 51 only. Questions 42, 44, 45, 47, 48, and 49 were worded differently for men
and for women.

THE "PEOPLE" SOCIAL SURVEY

This form is very easy to follow. Most of the questions can be answered by placing
a tick in the box opposite the answer that applies to you. When the question does
require you to write in the answer you will find dotted lines . For some of the

questions special instructions have been written alongside.

IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO SIGN THIS FORM

1. (a) TOWN: (Please add district number if any)

(b) COUNTY ... ...

2. SEX: MALE Q FEMALE Q

3. AGE .

4. SINGLE n MARRIED Q WIDOWED Q DIVORCED OR Q

SEPARATED

5. Please mark the approximate weekly family income: (By 'family income" we mean

the total of all income earners in the family.)

Under £5 Q Between £5 and £8 Q Between £8 and £12 n

Between £12 and £15 Q Over £15 n

6. How old were you when you finished full-time school ?

Under 14 Q 14 Q 15 Q ^ D 17 D 18 D Over 18 Q

7. If you were asked to say what class you belonged to, how would you describe

yourself?

8. (a) How long have you lived at your present address? .
(b) Would you describe your home as:

Detached—that is, standing by itself Q

Semi-detached — one side joined to another house Q]

Terraced — one of a row, with both sides joined to another house Q

A self-contained flat in a converted house Q

A flat in a block of flats Q

Unfurnished rooms Q

Furnished rooms []

Hotel or boarding house Q

Other (please specify)

9. (a) Is your father alive? Yes Q No Q

Is your mother alive? Yes n No n

(b) If your father is living, does your father live in the same

house as you? Yes Q No Q

If your mother is living, does your mother live in the

same house as you ? Yes Q No n

320

THE QUESTIONNAIRE

you, does your father live in the same town as you? Yes £] No
If your mother is living, but not in the same house as
you, does your mother live in the same town as you? Yes £] No

10. (a) Do any of your brothers or sisters or married children

live near you — within, say, 5 minutes' walk ? . . Yes Q No
(&) Do your parents-in-law, brothers-in-law or sisters-in-
law live near you — within, say, 5 minutes' walk ? . Yes Q No

11. Not counting relations or in-laws, do you know:

Tick one
box in
each line

Most

A few

Hardly
any

Neighbours by sight .

Neighbours to speak to

Neighbours to drop in on without
an invitation

Neighbours to visit for a meal or
an evening ....

12. Would you say your best friends live near you (that is, within walking distance),
a short way away (say, a mile or so), or far away?

Near you

Short distance away
Some in all three O

Far away

13. Are there places outside your own homes and the street where you meet neighbours
to have a chat? (Please mark in the first column if you visit such places at all,
in the second column how often you have been this last month.}

Church or chapel meeting rooms

Men's club

Women's club or women's institute ,

Mixed club

Youth club

Gymnasium

Sports ground ....

Dance hall

Political club

Public house .....

Caft

Other (please specify) . . ...

14. Do you think you could rely on your neighbours in a pinch?

Entirely Q To a large extent Q To a small extent

Not at all D It depends Q

321

Visit at all

Visit last month

(Tick here)

(number of times)

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

15. What do you most disapprove of about your present neighbours?

*16. (j) Were you in the Forces? Yes n No Q

(6) If Yes, have you kept in touch with friends you made in the Forces ?
None Q One or two of them Q Several Q

The whole bunch n

Yes D No D

(d) How many friends from the Forces did you see last year? . ...
0) How many friends from the Forces did you write to last year ?

17. What do you consider your three best qualities?

1 ...

2 . .

18. What do you consider your three worst faults?

1 . ,

3 . . . .

19. One reads a lot in the papers about the post-war increase in crime, especially

among young people. Please mark which of the following reasons seems to you
most important; if you think more than one important, please mark the most
important '!,' the next most important '2* — and so on.

People got into bad ways in the Forces Q

Children whose fathers were in the Forces didn't have proper

discipline Q

Children who were evacuated weren't properly looked after . Q

Modern parents aren't strict enough £]

Modern schools aren't strict enough Q]

Young people follow the bad example of crime films and crime

stories in books and on the radio Q

People are neglecting religion Q

20. There's a lot of talk about 'fiddling' nowadays. Please mark which of the following
statements' most nearly represents your own opinion. If more than one do> please
mark the most important *!,' the next most important %' — and so on.

Nearly everybody fiddles nowadays [H|

Most people fiddle occasionally, but not many do regularly . Q
With all the rules and regulations, one can't help having to break

a rule sometimes Q

It is unpatriotic to fiddle £]

None of my family has ever got anything *off the ration* . . [~|

It is wrong to break the law under any circumstances . . [J

Most fiddling is done by profiteers Q]

It is unfair to try to get more than others ... • Q

Most fiddling is done by foreigners Q

322

THE QUESTIONNAIRE
21. What do you think of the police?

22, (a) Have you a lucky mascot? .... Yes Q No Q

(&) Did you have a lucky mascot during the war ? . Yes O No Q

(</) Have you a specially lucky or unlucky number? Lucky Q Unlucky Q

*23. Can you tell fortunes? Yes Q No D

If Yes, how? Cards n Tea-leaves Q Reading hands D

Other (please describe)

24. (a) Have you been to a fortune-teller? . . . Yes D No D

(6) If Yes, how often? Once Q Twice D Several times Q

*(c) When did you last go? . . . ....

(tf) Did any of it come true?

25. (a) Do you read 'Lyndoe' in the People ?

Regularly £] Occasionally Q Never n

(£) Do you read the horoscope in any other paper or magazine?

Regularly Q Occasionally Q Never Q

*(c) If so, what paper or magazine ?

(rf) Do you follow advice in the horoscope columns you read?

Regularly n Occasionally n Never D

(e) Do you think there is something in horoscopes?

Yes D No D Uncertain Q

26. (a) Do you believe in ghosts? . . Yes Q No Q Uncertain Q

(6) If Yes, have you ever seen or heard

a ghost? Yes D No n Uncertain LJ

*(c) Have you ever known a person
whom you believe has ever seen
or heard a ghost? . . . Yes Q No Q Uncertain Q

27. Please mark in the first column the statement you most AGREE with and in the second

column the statement you most DISAGREE with. (Only ONE statement for agree
and ONE for disagree. Mark with X .)

A B

Agree Disagree

There is much more immorality than there used to be Q D
Human nature hasn't changed, but people are not so

narrow-minded as they used to be ... D U
It is right and natural for young people to want to

make love EH Q

It's other people's nasty minds which make all the

mischief D L- 1

People arc really more moral today than they were

thirty years ago D L- 1

323

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

28. (a) Do you think English people fall in

love the way you see Americans

doing it in the films? . . . Yes Q No n Don't know

(b) Would you say you had ever been

really m love ? . Yes Q No n Don't know

sometime?. .... Yes n No n Don't know

29. Not counting marriage, have you ever had a real love affair?

30. Do you think a young man should have
some sexual experience before he gets
married?

Why? .

Yes

Don't know

31. Do you think a young woman should
have some sexual experience before she
gets married ? Yes

Why?

Don't know

32. In marriage do you think sexual love is very important ?

Very im- Fairly im- Not very

portant O portant n important n

Not impor-
tant at all

33. Please mark in the first column the statement you most AGREE with and in the second
column the statement you most DISAGREE with. (Only ONE statement for agree
and ONE/0r disagree. Mark with x .)

A B

Agree Disagree

Most women don't care much about the physical side
ofsex ........ [] Q

Women don't have such an animal nature as men . Q ]

Women really enjoy the physical side of sex just as
much as men .......

Women tend to enjoy sex more than men • •

*34. Do you think a man and woman can
have a real friendship without sex
playing any part? . . . . Yes

*35. Which of these statements do you agree with?
Friendship is more important than love .
Love is more important than friendship .
Love and friendship are equally important

Don't know

n
n
a

36. If you wanted to spend a pleasant evening, what sort of company would you
like to spend it in? (Please mark in the first column the company you'd like best

324

Like best

Last Saturday

THE QUESTIONNAIRE

with *!,' next best with '2' — and so on; and in the second column mark the
company which you had last Saturday evening.)

One man ....
One girl ....
A foursome (two couples)
A group of men .
A group of girls .
A mixed group
With my own family

Alone

Working ....
Was ill ....

37. (a) Would you describe yourself as being of any religion

or denomination ? Yes Q No

(b) If Yes, which? . . . . .

38. Do you attend Church or religious services?

More than once a week

Once a week

Less than once a week but more

Less than once a month

Once or twice a year

Only for weddings and funerals

Never

39. Do you say prayers more than once a day?

Daily

Only in peril and grief .

Very seldom

Never .....

40. (a) Do you believe in the Devil ? .
(b) Do you believe in Hell? .

41. Do you believe in an after-life?

If Yes, what do you think it will be like?

once a month .

? .

Yes D No D

Uncertain

Yes n No D

Uncertain

Yes n NO n

Uncertain

42. (a) Do you think it is natural for young

people to be shy? . . . Yes Q No D Don't know H

(b) Do you think you were exceptionally

shy9 Yes D No n Don't know Q

(d) Do you think shyness a good thing? Yes Q No n Don't know n

43. How old were you when you first started being really interested in girls? (boys?)

325

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

44. What do you think are the three most important qualities a wife (a husband)

should have?

1 .

45. What are the three chief faults that wives (husbands) tend to have ?

The following questions were only sent to people
who were or had been married

*46. How many years have you been married? .

47. (a) How long had you known your wife (husband) before you were engaged?

*(6) How long was your engagement?

48. Before you became engaged to your wife (husband) did you ever seriously con-

sider marrying another woman (man)?

49. If a husband (wife) finds his wife (her husband) having an affair with another

man (woman) what should he (she) do ?

50. What do you think goes to wreck a marriage?

51. What do you think goes to make for a happy marriage?

The following questions were only sent to
parents of living children

52. How many boys have you? . . How many girls have you?

*Please list your children's ages : Boys

Girls

53. Generally speaking, do you consider children need more or less discipline than

they get nowadays?

More n Less £] The same d

54. Who is the proper person to punish a child who has done something really bad ?

Mother n Father D Teacher n Other Q (Please specify)

Why? ...

326

THE QUESTIONNAIRE

55. How should a really naughty boy be punished?

Are there any forms of punishment you don't approve of for boys?

56. How should a really naughty girl be punished?

Are there any forms of punishment you don't approve of for girls ?

57. If you were told that a small child, say between 3 and 8, had done something
really bad, what would you think the child had done? ...

58. When should a young child start being trained to be clean? ... .

Which is worse for the child, starting training too early n or to° late D or
doesn't it make much difference? Q

59. Should children be praised in front of others, if they are good and helpful?

Yes n NO n Don't kn°w n

60. (a) Do you give your children regular pocket-money when they start going to

school?

Yes D No D

(6) Do you give your children money or other rewards when they are useful
and helpful?

Always n Sometimes Q Occasionally Q Never Q

(c) Would you let your children take money for doing jobs for neighbours, such
as running errands, watching babies, or helping them ?
Yes D No n Don't know Q

61. Do your children go to Sunday School? Yes n No D

If Yes, do you send them n or allow them to go because they themselves want

to?Q

*62. (a) If you attend a Church or other place of worship, do you take your children
with you ?

Always Q Sometimes Q Occasionally Q Never Q
(b) Do your children go by themselves to Church or a place of worship ?
Always Q Sometimes n Occasionally n Never Q

63. (a) Do you teach your children to say prayers? Yes Q No D
(6) If Yes, when do they say them ?

Before going to bed Q Morning and evening D

Grace before meals Q Grace after meals Q

64. Do your children play with other children whose parents you don't know?

Often D Occasionally D Never D

327

EXPLORING ENGLISH CHARACTER

65. (a) Do you tell your children not to play with some of the neighbours' children ?

Yes D No D

(b) Do you forbid your children to visit some of the neighbours* houses ?

Yes n No D

If Yes, what are your reasons?

NOTE: All tables except those resulting from questions or sub-questions marked
with * are reproduced in the Complete edition.

The following questions were also asked in the field-survey by interviewers- 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (a), 8 (£), 10 (a), 10 (£), 11 GO, 11 (£), 11 (c), 11 (d\ 12, 14, 19, 20, 22,
22 (a), 22 (c\ 22 (d), 23 (a), 23 (£), 24 (a), 24 (6), 24 (c), 24 (d), 25 (6), 25 (d\ 25 (*),
27 (a), 27 (b\ 28 (a), 36 (o), 36 (6), 43, 46, 52, 58 (a), 58 (b), 59, 60 (*), 60 (6), 60 (c),
62 (a), 64.

328

City
Htbrar|>

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Irving Levitas

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